"Dustin, didn't you JUST do a book review?"
Yes I did, now get a ladder and climb off mah dyaaack!!!
I need to blog about this one, and yes SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you do not want to know the ending to this book DO NOT read this blog post. I don't want to get a bunch of smart-ass comments saying "Well thanks for ruining Gone Girl for me!" BITCH you've been warned. Don't act like I never told ya. There is NO WAY I can blog about this book without talking about the ending, I mean, that's a lie, of course I can, I just chose not to.
The Gont Gurl (Translated from Dustish to English: Gone Girl.) is a 2012 novel written by the extremely talented Gillian Flynn. I know I'm a little late to the Gillian Flynn party, but I like to be fashionably late so it's fine. After this book, I'm going to read anything and everything she writes. She's absolutely brilliant.
I picked up this book at Target about a week or so ago. It was one of those things where I knew a movie had been made about it, and I had wanted to see the movie, but I didn't connect that had been made into a movie at the time when i picked up the book and bought it until later. It's weird, I know.
Gone Girl is about Nick Dunne's wife, Amy Elliott Dunne disappearing on their 5th wedding anniversary. As the story progresses and the police investigate, an unstable marriage is soon exposed and Nick Dunne begins to look more and more suspicious.
The story is told from the perspective of Nick Dunne and Amy Dunne. The first several pages, we keep going back and fourth between Nick telling us what's going on currently and then to Amy's diary, telling her story. At first Amy's past diary entries don't paint Nick in a very positive light. Amy is seen as the wife to a broken and cruel man who has fallen out of love with his beautiful and supportive wife.
The general public and the police both begin suspecting Nick due to his lack of emotion and general shoulder shrugging attitude. Nick also reveals to us, as readers, that he has a mistress. He admits that it's terrible and he's a horrible person, but he also has been giving us his side of the story which is very honest. I feel like if this guy killed his wife, he would have told us by now. I hate Nick Dunne, but at the same time, I'm rooting for him. I know he didn't kill Amy. Reading Amy's diary entries, I begin feeling horrible for her too.
The general public and the police both begin suspecting Nick due to his lack of emotion and general shoulder shrugging attitude. Nick also reveals to us, as readers, that he has a mistress. He admits that it's terrible and he's a horrible person, but he also has been giving us his side of the story which is very honest. I feel like if this guy killed his wife, he would have told us by now. I hate Nick Dunne, but at the same time, I'm rooting for him. I know he didn't kill Amy. Reading Amy's diary entries, I begin feeling horrible for her too.
"It had been an awful fairy tale reverse transformation. Over just a few years, the old Amy, the girl of the big laugh and the easy ways, literally shed herself, a pile of skin and soul on the floor, and out stepped this new, brittle, bitter Amy. My wife was no longer my wife, but a razor-wire knot daring me to unloop her."
-Nick Dunne, Gone Girl
Then Nick, addressing us as readers, begins talking about some of the instances Amy talks about in her diary, though he doesn't know about the diary, we as readers are just getting insights into the diary because of reasons. For instance: At one point the detectives looking into Amy's case reveal all these credit card bills. Nick is shocked by this. He has no idea where this $200,000 in bills has come from. Later in her diary, Amy reveals that she's witnessed Nick looking at the bills in frustration. It's a huge "I don't know what to believe" moment.
Half way through the book it's revealed that Amy is indeed alive and well. She invented a BRILLIANT plan to have Nick framed for her murder. The diary we've been reading was all part of her elaborate scheme for getting revenge on Nick. I'm not going into details with her plan, because it's on a whole other level. There's so many details and mind-fuckery that went into her plan that she deserves an evil mastermind award.
The book really touches on marriage and how horrifying it can be. The slow realization that the person you married is not who you thought they were is a disturbing thought. This is a person you've committed your ENTIRE life to. A person you thought you loved and sincerely knew on all levels, until one day you wake up and realize this person has been pretending the entire time. It pretty horrifying.
The book also touches on troubled parental relationships. Nick's fear that he's becoming his cruel and misogynist father who is slowly going insane is a major factor in the book that is tied it quite nicely. Then there's Amy's parents who have always had an idealistic vision of her. Wanting her to be perfect in every way. I can totally see how Amy is a fucked up sociopath just reading about her parents. Her parents wrote a series of books called Amazing Amy. Amy, obviously is based on their daughter Amy. Her parents constantly write this version of their daughter that doesn't exist and the real Amy has had to try and live up to that image all her life. Never being able to make a mistake, or be a real person. She had to be Amazing Amy. It's extremely sad.
Gone Girl is a must read for anyone who loves thriller/crime books. It's brilliant beyond words. Just when you think you've figured something out, you haven't and your mind is blown. It's sick and twisted and makes you never, EVER want to get married!
Half way through the book it's revealed that Amy is indeed alive and well. She invented a BRILLIANT plan to have Nick framed for her murder. The diary we've been reading was all part of her elaborate scheme for getting revenge on Nick. I'm not going into details with her plan, because it's on a whole other level. There's so many details and mind-fuckery that went into her plan that she deserves an evil mastermind award.
"I hope you liked Diary Amy. She was meant to be likable. Meant for someone like you to like her."
- Amy Dunne, Gone Girl
The book really touches on marriage and how horrifying it can be. The slow realization that the person you married is not who you thought they were is a disturbing thought. This is a person you've committed your ENTIRE life to. A person you thought you loved and sincerely knew on all levels, until one day you wake up and realize this person has been pretending the entire time. It pretty horrifying.
“We weren't ourselves when we fell in love, and when we became ourselves – surprise! – we were poison. We complete each other in the nastiest, ugliest possible way.”
- Nick Dunne, Gone Girl
The book also touches on troubled parental relationships. Nick's fear that he's becoming his cruel and misogynist father who is slowly going insane is a major factor in the book that is tied it quite nicely. Then there's Amy's parents who have always had an idealistic vision of her. Wanting her to be perfect in every way. I can totally see how Amy is a fucked up sociopath just reading about her parents. Her parents wrote a series of books called Amazing Amy. Amy, obviously is based on their daughter Amy. Her parents constantly write this version of their daughter that doesn't exist and the real Amy has had to try and live up to that image all her life. Never being able to make a mistake, or be a real person. She had to be Amazing Amy. It's extremely sad.
“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl." - Amy Dunne, Gone GirlThe ending of the book left me wanting more, unfortunately. That's the only bad thing I can really say about it. SPOILER ALERT! Amy is never found out. She's never brought to justice. She traps Nick in a sick, loveless marriage because she doesn't want to get divorced. The power-play between them ends with Amy getting pregnant. Her ultimate trump card. In the end, both Amy and Nick get what they deserve. There can be no happy ending for either of them. Nick will have to live in a loveless marriage, constantly worried about Amy pulling another plot over him, and Amy has to live with the knowledge that Nick doesn't really love her, but despises her. She has to wake up everyday know that the only reason Nick is with her is because of the baby.
There's something disturbing about recalling an old memory and feeling utterly cold.
-Nick Dunne, Gone Girl
"I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?"
- Nick Dunne, Gone Girl
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