Gone Girl in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 02, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: suspense-thriller, fiction, only-reading-because-of-the-buzz, lotsa-buzz, stayed-up-way-too-late, oh-unlikeable-you, mystery, women-on-the-edge, psych-psych-psych, unreliable-narrator

4.5 stars.

It was great, but not quite 5 stars - a few things didn't add up, a few things were just TOO convenient, and the ending didn't fit, it felt like it had been pasted on from another book.

At first, I had trouble reading this ... both characters are so unbearable (mostly Nick).

*

Ugh. Nick is cheating on his wife. Why didn't any of the other reviews mention he's a cheater? All the reviews talk about "unexpected twists" ... well, cheating is EXPECTED when you're an asshole and you have a di 4.5 stars.

It was great, but not quite 5 stars - a few things didn't add up, a few things were just TOO convenient, and the ending didn't fit, it felt like it had been pasted on from another book.

At first, I had trouble reading this ... both characters are so unbearable (mostly Nick).

*

Ugh. Nick is cheating on his wife. Why didn't any of the other reviews mention he's a cheater? All the reviews talk about "unexpected twists" ... well, cheating is EXPECTED when you're an asshole and you have a disposable cell, so I thought for SURE that was NOT going on. Great. I avoid infidelity stories like the plague. But I'm in now, gotta keep reading ... This might be considered sort of a spoiler by some, I don't know - I don't think it spoils anything, and I would have liked to have known in advance, so I'm leaving this hear in case someone else needs the warning.

*

This book, I was so wrong about this book. The noose tightens ... and I just can't. stop reading to find out what happens next ... will the noose tighten some more? will it slip off? will it fall apart because the knot was shoddy??

And you know how sometimes you're reading a book, and you're told the characters are brilliant? But you're just told, never shown? Because the author doesn't really know brilliance. That doesn't happen here. We SEE the characters being brilliant. Which means Ms Flynn is brilliant. I liked that the characters were psychotic assholes, but yet I kinda sorta sympathized with them, too, and sometimes even empathized. And there are so many quotes I've marked ...so many lines jumped off the page at me (although, I must say, when I went back later to look at these marked quotes, some of them weren't so interesting out of context. In fact, MOST of them aren't that interesting out of context).

*

The cameras were clicking, and the two families stood together, all of us with mouths in thin slits, Go the only one looking even close to a real person. The rest of us looked like placeholder humans ...

*

I thought the unkind thought: Women are fucking crazy. No qualifier: Not some women, not many women. Women are crazy.

*

I was playing the girl who was in style, the girl a man wants: the Cool Girl. ... Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping ... Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they're fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. ... (How do you know you're not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: "I like strong women." If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because "I like strong women" is code for "I hate strong women.")

*

There is an unfair responsibility that comes with being an only child - you grow up knowing you aren't allowed to disappoint, you're not even allowed to die. There isn't a replacement toddling around; you're it. It makes you desperate to be flawless, and it also makes you drunk with the power.

...more

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Mar 24, 2014 alana rated it liked it

Shelves: books-on-the-big-screen, guilty-pleasures

I feel like Gone Girl was everywhere when it first came out which generally turns me off reading it. Even now, the wait list to get it from my library is epic. However, with the movie in the works, I thought I would give it a try for a quick read.

The first two-thirds of the book were fast-paced, exciting, and hard to put down! I loved the back and forth perspectives and dates in each chapter and all the twists and turns in the plot. The last third, however, was angsty and kind of emotionally gr ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 mstan rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, thriller, american, src-winter-2012-13

I loved the experience of reading this, especially at the beginning. I freely admit I am a voyeur-reader, the kind of reader who doesn't get tired of watching the perfect facade get stripped away to reveal the ugly relationship, the twisted minds... and the downhill journey of Nick and Amy's fairy-tale romance was written in an absolutely gripping way. It was all very Broken Harbor at some points, but in a good way - not derivative (one of Nick's inside jokes) but evoking a similar sense of smal ...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Amy Nash Parker rated it really liked it

Entertaining read with a different twist. Not sure I loved the ending but I don't know what type of ending I would root for, really! ...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: female-author

Just what I was looking for! This book was perfect for a rainy day and a morning off work with nothing to do except read. It's been a long time since I've sat down and read a book for hours straight without being distracted by anything. I misssed the feeling, and finally it happened with this book! How nice it is to love a book not for beautiful writing, meaningful life lessons, or intellegent social commentary, but rather for a well-crafted, engaging story. A suspense novel where the writing an ...more

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