GONE GIRL by GILLIAN FLYNN

GONE GIRL

BY GILLIAN FLYNN

THE BLURB:-

Who are you? What have we one to each other?

These are the questions that Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

THE REALITY:-

Wow, what a masterpiece! I can understand why this book became a best seller and am now looking forward to seeing the film- this is one superb thriller and gets five stars from me.

The detailed descriptions of the characters' psyches are really explored via the writing and your sympathy ends up swinging from person to person. To start with, you feel sorry for Nick but then end up hating him and ditto for Amy. I wish I hadn't allowed this book to fall open at a future page, and hence- SPOILER ALERT!- finding out that Amy was actually alive, but luckily it was near the end of part one, and it's in part two that her story is detailed.

The setting was almost ghostly in its desolation, with the bankrupt town and disused shopping mall eerily described. As the tale progresses, you end up trying to differentiate between what is truth and what is fiction, especially with regard to Amy's diary. I loved all of the minor and not so minor characters and was saddened and touched when Amy got ripped off whilst on the run. I also had no sympathy for Desi, who also had extreme “issues.” The novel certainly makes you explore a whole caveat of personal emotions. I loved the use of quizzes to help you understand Amy and also her diary descriptions of being the “cool girl.” The writer left no stone unturned with the thoroughness of continuity and the tying up of any loose ends (rather like Amy!) Both of their crime research is second to none!

I ended up hating both characters- they are absolutely revoltingly horrid and deserve each other. I know Nick should have kept it in his pants but I do wish that he could have “manned up and grown a pair” and stuck up to this vindictive cow at the end of the novel- either that or simply killed her. Whilst I understand her motive for her wanting to stitch him up (a woman scorned, and all that) she is still an evil cow and deserves to die for what she did.