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Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn

Start date: September 1, 2022

Finish date: October 1, 2022

Discussion: Monthly Discussions

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APRIL/MAY 2023; Clown in A Cornfield
By kyky , Certified Screamer · 1 post · 3 views

last updated Mar 31, 2023 05:57PM

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FEBRUARY 2023; Warm Bodies
By kyky , Certified Screamer · 1 post · 2 views

last updated Feb 03, 2023 11:01AM

What Members Thought

Feb 13, 2024 Beatrice rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was so good I’m going to give it a 4.5 , just because there was some unnecessary details.

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Oct 20, 2022 Aleksandr Plata rated it it was ok

Gone Girl: An overhyped thriller?

Gone Girl was such a hit book back in 2012, so widely known that in a matter of two years director David Fincher would be releasing its film adaptation, which I watched long before reading the book, and which I did not entirely like in spite of the brilliant direction and the excellent choice of the main actors (Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck), whose physical appearance perfectly match the way we might picture both Nick and Amy in the book, chiefly due to the frig Gone Girl: An overhyped thriller?

Gone Girl was such a hit book back in 2012, so widely known that in a matter of two years director David Fincher would be releasing its film adaptation, which I watched long before reading the book, and which I did not entirely like in spite of the brilliant direction and the excellent choice of the main actors (Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck), whose physical appearance perfectly match the way we might picture both Nick and Amy in the book, chiefly due to the frigid beauty of Rosamund Pike I would say (plus, a face which perfectly sways from cutely ingenuous to ruthlessly cunning and calculating).

Flynn's novel opens up on a suspiciously smelling stew we start feeling soon it is getting cooked, a slow-cook dish announced by the very first thoughts we get to see in Nick's mind, as he wonders about Amy, the odd beauty of her tarpaulin-like and hermetic head, whose intricate inside of constant thinking and premeditation remains alien to him. A bright beam through the window floodlights the room as tattletale of the sun rising up, shedding light on Nick Dunne, with accusing eyes. It is the day of, the day of the married couple's anniversary and no-longer-Cool-Girl Amy is preparing crepes down in the kitchen while humming to herself; what are you thinking Amy? In a matter of hours, Amy is nowhere to be found and we are then faced with split realities, Amy's voice from the past speaking through diary instalments and the current reality of Nick, 34-year-old former writer, who is starting to be suspected for Amy's dissappearance.

There is no denying it, the beginning is engrossing and there is something really unsettling in there that the reader may hesitatingly blame Amy for, or otherwise may not, since Nick could be playing a part in all of this and be tricking us along. My rating for this book judging by the initial impressions and the cleverly crafted protrait of a troubled mariage coupled with the sometimes nerve-racking suspense could have been easily four stars at the least, however, as the action developed, I did not sense that the slow-cooked suspense was bearing the fruits I had been expecting. There are blunt inconsistencies, plot pitholes, unsatisfying shifts of focus and ultimately, a disappointing ending.

How come Amy changes her mind so quickly right upon watching Nick's interview on TV? An one-year rigmarole project with so many intricacies and steps including stabbing herself down to the muscle cancelled after five minutes of Nick asking her to return? A potential murder case broadcasted nationwide for more than four weeks and thourougly investigated yields to one single interview with Amy managed by two local cops and two taciturn FBI agents? Some of Amy's answers during that interview are badly lame, like clear-suspect lame, yet no one except Boney seems to realize there is something wrong with Amy. Her story implies too many concidences.

I got to a point where I cared no longer about the characters, because unlikeable although they are (which is not a flaw of the book to me), they just do not inspire anything; the interest fades, Nick's final position remains disaffectingly unclear, the story eventually lost me, left me incurious, apathetic. Amy is this artful and shady wife with a perfect plan that crumbles apart too soon, a twisted plan that never completely accomplished what it had promised, a more exciting approach to a coldly planned revenge. After Nick's interview on the TV, Amy does not seem the brilliant mastermind we had encountered before. She falls for Nick's lie and manages to come back to him without even thinking twice. How come those years of pachydermatous hatred are lost to 5 minutes of your long-despised husband begging for your return on TV?

Had her decision of coming back to Nick would have been further explained and justified I would have bought this little twist, seriously! But as the account of Amy's and Nick's future approaches the end, the story starts feeling forced and pretentious to me, devoid of a strong grip that in other conditions, with a better second half and ending, would have been enough to keep me engaged, fully in tune with the story.

In a nutshell, I do think 'Gone Girl' was overhyped at the time and keeps being an overrated thriller. There're much better thriller novels out there without all the ohs and ahs that this kind of mass-market best-selling books usually get.

4,0/10

Two stars out of five.

Meh, not terribly bad but not really interesting either...
...more

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Sep 29, 2022 kyky rated it really liked it

did i enjoy this? yes. did i know every twist and turn this book would hold by page 50? also yes.
also ha i finished this before the end of the month go me

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May 23, 2023 FallynO'Connor rated it it was amazing

This book was so interesting. It was a deep dive into a perfectionist woman's mind and how she goes about her life as well as she ruins the life of the man who stopped trying to be with her. ...more

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