Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

              

Originally Published in 2012

Publisher: Orion Books

Format: Kindle 

**Warning. This review contains spoilers.**

"One should never marry a man who doesn’t own a decent set of scissors. That would be my advice. It leads to bad things."

Part one

Right from the beginning Gone girl hooked its claws into me and wouldn't let go. All life around me ceased to exist while I was reading this.

Amy is Gone. Nick her husband had become the number one suspect. All eyes fall on him. It's the husband....its always the husband.

Amy's story is told through a series of Diary entries. Her picture is not a happy one 

"Sometimes I feel like Nick has decided on a version of me that doesn’t exist"

I never really liked Amy at any point during the book. I felt like she was the making of her own unhappiness. Outwardly she constantly plays "cool girl". Nick wants to go out with the guys...fine. Her blows off a dinner with her because he want's to go out with the guys...fine. She won't be the one to turn him into a dancing monkey like all the others. Yet inside she is crumbling because she refuses to sit down and discuss her problems with him. 

"Just to make sure I’m not crazy. I’ve got a calendar, and I put hearts on any day Nick seems to love me again, and black squares when he doesn’t. The past year was all black squares, pretty much."

She documents everything yet acts on nothing...or so we are lead to believe

Gillian writing is very convincing though. With each chapter my loyalties flipped back and forth. However even with Nick being an utter dickhead I didn't completely fall for her syrupy version of the story.

Part Two

The beginning of the book is intriguing but from here on in things really got interesting. I knew something was coming but it still brought out that what the fuck reaction in me. I love it when a book does that. 

Nick is starting to wake up to the true nature of the psychopath he married. Amy is perfect and the world most only see her as perfect. Everyone else is responsible for her happiness and her perfect image and if the flaw, even once she doles out punishment "Old testament style"

If she punished a friend of a few months by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, what would she do to a man who was dumb enough to marry her?’

Amy is a planner. She has a plan A, B and C and two other back up plans in case they don't work out. She is a genius...to a point. The amazing thing is that she realizes this so she even has a back up story in case her lies become untangled.  She's like Annie Wilkes from Misery, if she took acid.

Part Three

Nick knows what he should do. Amy is poison but she has utterly consumed him. He doesn't know who he is without her.  Does Amy bring out the best in him? In a way, yes. Amy is perfect. Nick must act like Amy is perfect. She ensures that this is the way things work. 

Opinions seem to be divided on the ending. I thought it was perfect. Amy of course has to have the final word. Thats what had to happen. But has she won? I dont think so.

"I said: ‘My gosh, Nick, why are you so wonderful to me?’ He was supposed to say: You deserve it. I love you. But he said, ‘Because I feel sorry for you.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because every morning you have to wake up and be you.’"

Rating:

★★★★★