First published in 2012 by Crown Publishing Group, Gone Girl has been a best selling phenomenon and the movie version will be making its way into UK cinemas in the next couple of days. There’s a lot of hype around the film, which is why i wanted to post this book review before it comes out.
The book is the story of Nick and Amy, a married couple living in Missouri. It begins on the day that Amy goes missing. The book is split into three sections, and each section
moves between Nick and Amy’s stories. In June 2012 Amy goes missing. The novel begins with Nick on ‘the day of’ Amy’s dissapearance, and leads us through the first stages of the investigation. Meanwhile we are shown Amy’s diary, which begins when she met Nick in 2005 and goes through the first stages of their relationship, leading to their marriage, and then on to pretty much the present day.
Honestly, this isn’t the kind of book I’d usually go for. I’m not overly keen on on thrillers or crime novels, and I don’t tend to read books just because they’re fashionable, or because there’s a lot of hype around them. I felt differently about this though. I just kept hearing about it, to the point where I felt it could no longer be ignored. I started reading it and almost gave up instantly, because I didn’t like Amy. I can’t quite say why, but from her diary, the way it’s written, her voice, just didn’t sit well with me. I just don’t really like girls like that, so I thought I would have to put up with that throughout the book. But I’m glad I stuck with it. You can’t always go by first impressions!
I feel like it’s hard to write a good review of the plot without giving too much away. Nick and Amy end up moving to Nick’s home town in Missouri for various reasons. They are both out of work writers and are running out of money. Nick’s mum is ill and needs to be cared for. Nick borrows money from Amy and opens a bar with his sister Margot. Amy has a trust fund, given to her from her parents from the money they made from a series of children's books based on Amy - The Amazing Amy series. One day Amy goes missing, and it appears that she has been taken. The details of her dissapearance don’t add up, the reader is caught between truth and lie and has to follow the intricate revelations that are slowly exposed until things become clearer.
This is so well written. The two sides of the story compliment each other perfectly. The reader is very carefully led from normality into insanity. The novel gets slowly darker and more psychological. Although it feels like the information is revealed quite slowly, this doesn’t mean at all that this is a ‘slow’ novel. It feels fast paced, exciting, and full of plot and action.
The characterisation is wonderful. After reading it I was glad I started off hating Amy and liking Nick. I feel that Gillian Flynn wants the reader to question outer appearances and out understanding of ‘the truth’. A huge theme in this book is honesty and dishonesty. Everyone lies and nothing is how it originally seems. This really screws things up, for everyone. Is Flynn wanting us to question the power of lies in our own lives, or the fact that we shouldn’t take everyone at face value? Media representation plays a big part in this, once the hunt for Amy gets under way. I mean, Amy is missing. No one knows what her or Nick are really like and yet the media representation of the two and the search have a massive impact on all involved. Because really, how can the media tell the truth on a case where a girl has vanished and not been found? It’s all speculation, and yet how many people find themselves going along with the popular opinion that the media creates?
Another thing that struck me as being well done is the relationships in the novel. Nick and Amy’s, Amy’s parents, the other lovers the characters have had. The book made me think about what we expect from a healthy, happy, normal relationship, and what one really is. I definitely think that they book presents the perfect idea of a relationship, in a variety of forms, and then goes on to smash that idea to pieces. No one has a perfect relationship. Or if they do, if they think they do, is it at the expense of something else?
There’s a lot going on in this book and there’s a lot to think about. It’s the kind of book that you can’t put down. Once you’ve started it you will speed through it, it doesn’t allow you to want to stop reading. At 466 pages it’s not overly long, but it’s long enough to feel like you have to invest some amount of time to sit and get really into it. For me, this is a definite MUST READ!
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