Gone Girl

Let me start off this review by issuing a massive SPOILER WARNING for a novel that came out a little less than a decade ago. There will be major spoilers ahead, so I would advise you to read this book (if you, like me, have been living under a rock for the past 8 years or so) before looking at this review.. As a matter of fact, this won’t be as much of a review, instead, it’ll be a series of my reactions to a couple of things in the story. I was meaning to read this book in 2015 after I read and enjoyed Paula Hawkins’s “The Girl on The Train”. I’ve heard many people comparing that book to this one and I wanted to see how similar the two were. In my opinion, I didn’t get as much similarities as I was expecting, but they were both enjoyable psychological thrillers. Anyways, Gone Girl has been in my library for a while and I finally decided to read it. I’ll have to admit, about halfway through, I had a strong feeling that I would be giving this book 5 stars. It literally grabbed me from the beginning and never let me go. All the high praise I've heard about it throughout the years didn't do this story justice. The first -I wanna say- half of this book is the main story. Married woman mysteriously disappears, and the husband is left to find out what happened to his wife. However, the story changes point of views from the husband to the wife’s perspective through a series of diary entries she wrote, and I have to admit. I was completely fooled! As the story goes on, I’m wondering who kidnapped this man’s wife. I started gathering suspects right off the bat. The neighbor who informed Nick that the door was open. He was my number one suspect at first. Then I blamed the people from Amy’s past. For a brief moment, I thought Nick’s twin sister kidnapped her. I was just looking for answers and I knew the only way I would get my answer is if I keep reading. The beauty of mystery novels. So, for the first half of the book, I’m looking at all of the surrounding characters funny. Someone here is a murderer. And as I’m doing that, Amy’s diary entries begin to take a dark turn. She starts writing about Nick’s coldness. Nick becoming a completely new person than the guy she told us about in the first diary entry. He became someone who I honestly started to dislike. He treated her horribly, he even shows a weird abusive side. The later diary entries made me think that maybe HE did it all along and that’s the big twist. I also had a small thought that maybe she faked her kidnapping because he was so abusive and she wanted to escape him, but that seemed like it wouldn’t be it, so I shoved that theory to the side. Not like it mattered anyway. Lol. Turns out, I was half-right with that theory I pushed to the side. The whole time, I’m worried about this sweet, lovable woman and it turns out she staged the whole thing, knowing that all signs will point to her horrible, possibly abusive husband. After the halfway point of the novel, we find out that the Amy that we knew from the diaries was a made-up character. She’s nothing like who she appeared to be. She’s manipulative and has always been that way. There are a few moments where I screamed at my Kindle, “This woman is evil!” I was completely caught off guard and that doesn’t happen a lot. Then we see the beginning of Amy’s plan, living as a supposedly dead woman and even that builds suspense in itself because she has to continuously look over her shoulder and hope that nobody ever notices her. It’s a crazy way to live, but Amy is always three steps ahead in planning. She befriends two people who are also on the run apparently, and they end up turning on her, and stealing the money she had reserved for her new life, leaving her with a cut lip, no money, and a ruined plan. Leaving her to call her high school sweetheart, a man we met earlier in the story and he -to my disappointment- ends up helping her. Inviting a woman who is allegedly kidnapped to your house is a bad move. I knew that wasn’t going to end well. I thought Amy would somehow get into a fight with Desi (the guy who came to her rescue), but I didn’t expect her to actually murder him, but the more I thought about it, it makes sure he can’t tell the truth and pay a bunch of high-quality lawyers to make sure she spends the rest of her life behind bars. Another case of Amy being one step ahead of everybody. This woman is a criminal mastermind. Not only was this story a freaking roller coaster of a read, but it was just overall fun to read. So many layers to the story, so many twists and turns, clever dialogue all throughout, and even the end surprised me. I was sure this story would end with one of the main characters going to jail, but surprisingly, it was (sort of) a happy ending… at least for the puppet master it was a happy ending. 5 stars!

There's a lot to like about Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL. It's a captivating mystery (did charming Nick have anything to do with the disappearance of his lovely wife Amy?) and a cleverly conceived thriller (there are enough twists and turns to satisfy any fan of the genre). But what really works - and what makes GONE GIRL a real page turner - is how beautifully Flynn dissects the disintegration of a marriage. This isn't really a book about Amy's disappearance; in fact, that aspect of the plot becomes fairly moot by the half-way point. This is a book about what it means to love someone, in all its terrifyingly selfish horror. It's about what we do to one another in the name of love and happiness. Manhattan-born Amy is gorgeous, rich, and successful, and she admits to playing roles in her relationships with men (she'll be the "Cool Girl," since men love Cool Girls - easy-going, fun, never a complainer). Nick is likable and charismatic, yet he is haunted by his relationship with an angry and deranged father (at first he can't believe pretty Amy loves him; later he can't remember why he ever loved her). Their marriage is great until they both lose their jobs -- then they leave Manhattan for the pressure cooker of small-town Midwestern life, and nothing is ever quite the same again. On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears. Nick becomes the primary suspect. And the reader is left trying to figure out which of these two characters to believe. In the first part of the novel, the narration shifts between Nick's story and Amy's journal entries. Sometimes they both describe the same event, and we get a clear picture of how impossible it is for two people to really understand each other. These two hurt each other without ever understanding why. They also both lie . . . repeatedly. Later in the story, we get a different picture. At first we sympathize with Amy and grow suspicious of Nick (she's loving and caring; he's sullen and secretive). Later, we will sympathize with him, and despise her. By the end, we won't know what to believe or what to think. Is anyone in the novel telling the truth? The ending of this book has generated quite a bit of controversy, mainly because what ultimately happens is so depressingly awful. But at the same time, it's difficult to imagine any other ending, outside the Hollywood "feel-good" kind of thing you would expect from a big-budget movie. There's nothing "feel-good" about this book - not the story, not the characters, and certainly not the ending. This is hard stuff, about people who are psychologically damaged. It's hard to like either of them. Near the end, Nick says, "So let everyone take sides. Team Nick, Team Amy. Turn it into even more of a game: Sell some [*******] T-shirts." There is no "Team Nick" and "Team Amy" here. You'll find yourself hard-pressed to support either of them by the end. Do I recommend this novel? Sure - I loved parts of it, even as I was repulsed by other parts. It's a fascinating read, and Nick and Amy are fascinating, if damaged, people. It will remind you of Turow's PRESUMED INNOCENT (if you've read it, you'll know what I mean), Craig Jones's masterful BLOOD SECRETS (out of print, but well worth the search for a used copy), and the 1981 film BODY HEAT (there's a fine line between passion and betrayal). But maybe the best comparison is to the 1989 dark comedy, WAR OF THE ROSES. If GONE GIRL was a comedy (and it's totally not), it would be WAR OF THE ROSES. By the end of that film, there wasn't much left to laugh about. By the end of GONE GIRL, you'll wonder if there'll ever be anything to laugh about again. It's a powerful book. But it's certainly not an easy read.

Très déçue . Arrivé en anglais. Pas très explicite sur le site.

Primé 20 meilleurs livres 2012 sur Amazon.com, je me suis laissé tenté et j'ai adoré. Le mystère se dévoile peu à peu comme un objet précieux emballé dans de fines couches de papier superposées. Dans la première moitié du roman on à le sentiment d'être monté dans un rollercoaster qui n'en finit pas de nous emporter de plus en plus haut avec une tension intensément palpable jusqu'au paroxisme... Puis...c'est la descente, en une spirale infernale, dans une puissante exploration des extrêmes que peuvent revêtir les rapports de couple. L'amour et la haine n'ont jamais été si proches, la force de notre part d'ombre si aiguisée. L'exploration de l'âme humaine est saisissante, décrite avec une intelligence subtile pour lui donner vie dans toute sa complexité. Un véritable tour de force qui mélange habilement polar et thriller psychologique. L'écriture est délicieusement soignée et minutieusement travaillée. Le récit est très habilement construit avec une narration subjective qui alterne à un rythme judicieusement choisi entre les deux protagonistes. On aurait peut-être aimé toutefois que ces deux récits alternés soient un peu plus différenciés dans le style d'écriture (cela reste très personnel ). Bref : De l'excellente littérature qui nous emporte dans des ambiances puissantes et saisissantes, avec des personnages d'une exceptionnelle profondeur psychologique et une histoire très prenante. BRAVO et MERCI Madame Flynn. MAJ 17.3 2014: Gone Girl est aussi un film américain de David Fincher prévu pour 2014

I loved this book from start to well almost the END, this book was so well written and you could read the character, which one do you like ? do you like the women understand her feel what she is feeling? or do you like the husband who seems so cold and distant at first, but book continues, lots of twists and turns, just when you think you have figured out what will happen next SURPRISE no something else happens and you want to keep reading to find out the next part. I couldn't put this book down, I just had to read, it was like a roller coaster I went from hating the husband to wanting him to win then I would change my mind. Only CRITIC I have is yes you got it the ENDING build up build up build up then ANTI CLIMAX but it may have been left open for a follow up book but was still worth the read

Arrived damaged and clearly used, package was whole and on time

Amo completamente la película que se adaptó de esta novela y desde hace años he querido leerla. Es increíble la calidad de esta historia! De mis mejores lecturas este año, además de que llegó perfecto el libro y súper rápido.