Gone Girl

First, I found the writing in this book phenomenal, especially the dialogue. I feel like each bit of dialogue revealed something new about the character or pulled me deeper into the plot. It’s witty and dark. Honest would be a good word to describe it.

The characters felt so human to me–simultaneously loveable and deplorable, true to human nature. But it was the twist midway through the novel that really drew me in—the shift in reality. It changed the book for me, molding it into something unique, something I’d never read before.

It’s a novel I come back to time… show more.

I loved reading this book like millions of others who made it such a blockbuster, best-selling book.

Many people assume this book was based on the sensational real-life case of missing Laci Peterson and her husband Scott (later convicted of murder.) Author Gillian Flynn–although agreeing there were parallels between the two stories has said her gripping, page-turning fictional novel about a cheating husband and a missing wife was not directly drawn from the Peterson story.

But she was still clearly inspired by that and other high-profile media cases like this that she covered as a journalist before becoming a crime… show more.

Yes, of course this is now a classic thriller. Still, I have to recommend it here because I love Gillian Flynn's writing style and how she structured her twists. Especially through the diary entries, you get very close to the main characters, and I could really empathize with everything. 

I was drawn deeper into the story and really wanted to solve the mystery of what happened to the wife. Then, it shocked me.

This book spoke to me on so many levels.

A failing marriage is dramatic enough, but the death of the spouse you’re no longer in love with? That amps things up. What about being blamed for it? Ratcheted higher still. Every time I thought I’d found the end of the drama, the author threw in a new twist.

This story was delightfully perverse (if there is such a thing), and when I read the end, I literally gasped—and it takes a lot to get that kind of reaction from me. This is “dysfunction” on steroids.

This book was a bestseller, and not only thanks to its clever plot.

The writing is terrific: sharp, fresh, witty, full of details that snag your attention. The characters are both quirky and fully dimensional. If you saw the movie but never read the book, please turn that around. I believe a novel is a film that unspools in your head: Your reading breathes life into the characters, your mind’s eye creates the action, the voice of the writer speaks inside you.

For me, a book has an intimacy a movie never can—and Flynn’s characters repay intimacy, even though it… show more.

This book truly terrified me, more than any horror has.

The human mind and the capabilities without a conscience left me feeling mentally sick. It had my own mind doing somersaults long after reading. As disturbing as it was, I found it difficult to put the book down. It’s definitely one you won’t forget.

I admit: Gone Girl was my gateway drug into psychological thrillers, a genre I remain addicted to this day.

Before that, I mostly read literary fiction and Penguin Classics, (which was fine, but a little dull). I consider Gone Girl an absolute masterwork and must have read it at least five times, studying every detail of how she pulled it off!

Flynn turns Amy’s utterly taboo actions into a highly-astute commentary about women’s experiences in modern society, articulating and expressing suppressed aspects of the female psyche in a way that I found incredibly validating. IMO, her “Cool Girl” manifesto ought… show more.

One of the tropes we crave in psychological and domestic thrillers is the killer twist that pulls the rug from under our feet and leaves us questioning everything we thought we knew.

Gone Girl was the book that sparked my interest in psychological thrillers and it was that twist that did it for me. It comes at the midway point and it completely blindsided me.

Like many subsequent books in the genre, it features an apparently ordinary husband and wife, but who are keeping dark secrets behind closed doors. It’s an utterly compelling read and a brilliant examination of the… show more.

Maybe you have seen the film. If not, or even if you have, I suggest you read the novel.

Throughout the story, we follow the two narratives of a married couple. The wife mysteriously disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, and the husband becomes the prime suspect.

While he is the main narrator, her point of view leading up to the disappearance is told through her own diary. I don't want to reveal too much, but the way Flynn uses the two narrator voices to unfold the story in this psychological thriller is nothing but brilliant.

One… show more.

She likes to do the same as me: Take the structure of a potboiler/page-turner and see how far below the surface you can go. It's a contemporary, accessible, entertaining thriller—but so much more. There are lots of layers to this juicy tome, and it's insanely well-written. Keeps you thinking long after finishing. The movie’s pretty good too!