AMB Book Review: Gone Girl

This is my first ever book review that’s not a teacher-mandated book report, which goes to show how excited I am about Gone Girl. Chances are, it’s a book your friends are talking about…you know, the one that does NOT feature a 20-something billionaire who’s way into bondage. I’ll leave that one to my fellow Austin Mom Bloggers.

It’s a very rare opportunity when I get to even read a book. Even rarer is reading a book that provokes so much emotion, from every spectrum. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is the sort of story where you will find yourself identifying with characters who are either normal and boring or completely batshit psycho crazy.

The basic premise of Gone Girl is Nick Dunne goes to work on his fifth wedding anniversary and comes home to find his living room trashed and his wife, Amy, missing. Nobody believes Nick’s alibi and of course, he becomes the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. What makes Gone Girl unique is its narrative shift. The book’s chapters alternate between Nick’s present-day POV and Amy’s diary entries from the previous seven years. But things are not always what they seem and that’s really all I’m going to say because I don’t want give away anymore about the plot.

There are a lot of things to take away from this book. What I was struck most by was the notion that you’re more likely to fall in love with the idea of somebody but when reality sets in and you finally see their true colors, it’s too late. You find yourself stuck in a miserable relationship in the Midwest suburbs, wishing for a different and better life. Amy acted the role of the “cool girl” during her courtship with Nick but once they settled into the humdrum of marriage, Nick realized she could be just as shrewish as her rich friends who considered their husbands “dancing monkeys.”

Nick and Amy seem like any average couple who are a few years into a marriage that has become stagnated. They’re not sure what the next phase is, especially post-Great Recession. Both are out-of-work writers who are faced with no other choice except moving to Nick’s hometown to take care of his ailing parents.

If you do any sort of Googling about this book, which I advise against, you’ll notice some readers think the second half is much weaker than the first. I think by comparison, that’s true, but I also think Flynn rushes the finish. I spent the better part of my birthday vacation reading this book and I was rather angry at the ending. I don’t know why. Was it that it was too realistic or too far-fetched? Truly, it could have gone either way. Upon giving it a second read, there really was no other way for it to end.

I found most of the characters to be multi-dimensional. There was a lot going on underneath the surface of both Nick and Amy. You may even see yourself in either of these characters.

I always play the movie game when reading a novel. Which character would I play in the movie version of this book? The answer for Gone Girl is Nick’s twin sister Go (short for Margo; their mom went by Mo so Go makes sense.) Go is the sassy voice of reason. She wants to believe her brother but something about the whole story doesn’t add up for her. Hopefully Reese Witherspoon, who has optioned the movie rights and will play Amy in the big-screen version, will consider me for the role.

OK, I better stop because I’m venturing into tease-and-reveal territory. So please read this book and hopefully we can get a discussion going on it. If you’ve already read it, I’d love to hear your opinion.

So get those book clubs ready, ladies! This is one book you’ll actually want to read before your next meeting margarita night.

Happy reading!