I hate everyone...

[Denise]

Are you kidding me? I thought this book was a page-turner! Except for the end. I hated the end that I worked so hard to get to.

[Cindy]

Paul wrote: "Better is subjective. They are all different and I loved them all for different reasons. I Loved Gone Girl. It was in my top 10 reads for the year and thats saying a lot with more than 50 reads.

..."

Thank you!!!! The criticism I've been seeing about the ending has been making me crazy. It's not supposed to have a happy ending. Sure if Nick could have gotten his revenge on Amy it would have been satisfying, but throughout the book Amy always had the upper hand & that's the way it had to end.

[Katie]

Paul wrote: "Better is subjective. They are all different and I loved them all for different reasons. I Loved Gone Girl. It was in my top 10 reads for the year and thats saying a lot with more than 50 reads.

..."

The ending was perfect! It was a dark book...it had a dark and depressing ending. It fit. I LOVED this book and I loved her other ones...I hope she writes something new soon!

[Donna]

I was so disappointed in this book. I doubt I'll ever read anything else she writes. I don't think a good writer needs ever other word to be the "f" word. I agree with some of the other comments about not liking any character in the book!

[Kim]

It doesn't bother me in general when characters are unlikable, but in Gone Girl I kind of felt like the unlikability of all the major players served a purpose, too -- i mean, they were all unlikable, but they had moments were they were totally relatable, even if in a small way. If you're reading along, hating but sort of understanding a character who turns out to be a total sociopath, well, that tells you a little something about people end up accidentally married to one, or how psychopaths manage to lead seemingly normal lives all around us (/at the top of their fields, often). Those little moments where I was hating Nick but also realizing that I'd made similar (though smaller!) mistakes made me think more deeply about the plot and the other characters. Amy was able to manipulate me as the reader as well as she was the other characters, and I guess that helped me feel some sympathy for Nick, even if he was unlikable.

All of this is to say, I thought it worked. And the ending, like people have been saying, is the only ending these kind of characters could reasonably meet, really.

[Thomas]

Angie wrote: "I hate everyone in this book. I kind of like Go and the police, oh and they comic ex and the friend from school...Everyone else...not so much. I am struggling to finish it. Whatever the actual e..."

I think Gone Girl is an exceptional piece of writing. Interesting characters, well thought out story and great ending. I say great ending because it was unpredictable and interesting. After reading it I immediately bought her other two books, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. I am currently reading Sharp Objects and so far (about 60 pages in) it is as good as I had hoped.

[Delores]

True, there were really no likable characters in the book, but I loved it. I think the ending was as it should be for Nick and Amy. Neither of them could disengage; they were two sides of the same coin.

[Peggy]

Donna wrote: "I was so disappointed in this book. I doubt I'll ever read anything else she writes. I don't think a good writer needs ever other word to be the "f" word. I agree with some of the other comment..."

Amen!

[Evan]

The incredible hype (most reviewed book of 2012 on GR, amongst other kudos) that this book enjoyed led me to expect something much better. I covered my writerly criticisms in my GR review, including my opinion of the ending. I can't argue with the preceding posts which cover both poles of opinion nicely. I'd just like to add the point *spoiler alert* that the plot device that serves as the backbone of the entire plot, the pathos laden journal, in real life would be easily proven a forgery on its face. Happens in medical records cases with fair regularity. (Not my records, mind you.) This took any semblance of "legal thriller"ness away for me.

[Robert]

I can't say I "liked" any of the characters as much as I was fascinated by them. Even the minor characters had depth. This alone is a tremendous feat.

In some ways I look at this as an allegory. (I am often accused of over-intellectualizing things. - Guilty) Think for a moment about all those children who grew up in the spotlight and turned out badly. The tabloids are full of them. Amy is the archetype of this person. If we view this story as a view of the mind of one of those celebrity offspring, it all makes sense. Tragic but true.

As to the plot, there is a kind of inevitability about it. Once Amy disappeared, most of the rest proceeded logically with each action being a direct result of the action before it.

Given the number of "dancing monkeys" I have known in my career, I found the ending unexpected, but unexpectedly true to life. I had expected the happy ending, but in retrospect, I realize that for these people, there is no happy ending, but the one who will suffer most is the child yet to be born.

[Kari]

Gigi Ann wrote: "I don't know if her other books are better or not. And I guess I will never know.... But I can say, I hated the ending. Actually, I didn't much like any of the book. It got so many great reviews so..."

I feel the same way. I was so disappointed. I paid good money for it and couldn't understand what the hype was all about. It was so disappointing to say the least.

[Kristi]

I am surprised that it is such a highly rated book to be honest. It is OK for me. I didn't like the characters, but that isn't a priority for me. You're just meeting someone and getting to know them and their peculiarities, you don't have to like them. I wished for a different ending too, but it is what the main characters both deserved. They were equally deserving of each other.

[Jamuna]

I just finished this today (I'm really late arent i?) but I must say I have never been more disappointed. It was a slow start and then I got really into the story. I went from disliking one character to hating and then I started rooting for the same character. It got better towards the middle of the book and then when the climax arrived, it fell completely flat for me. The ending... was unexpected and i hated it.

[Bookiemom]

Kathy wrote: "I loved Gone Girl, I thought it was well written. After reading so many posts, it almost seems like most people either hate it or love it! I thought it was interesting that people had to like the ..."

I agree! I thought it was a roller coaster ride!

[Cynthia]

I loved Gone Girl. I also read Sharp Objects and Dark Places, but in my opinion Gone Girl was the best of the three books. I can't wait for Gillian Flynn to come out with another book. I love these thrillers and especially ones that you can't tell what is coming next. I didn't really like the characters, but I loved the book. The characters certainly weren't boring and just when I thought I had things figured out, well......I didn't !

[Bookiemom]

I purchased dark places, but I haven't read it yet. I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Kate]

Gone Girl was the complete opposite of what i was expecting .. it definately made for uncomfortable reading and i think Gillian Flynn is some kind of genius to write a book with two main characters that everyone seems to hate. Totally twisted! and like most people in this thread...days later i was still thinking about that ending!
Also, just to throw my two pennith in, i didn't think Paul was rude or stuck up ..just offering an opinion (that i think i agreed with) on this book, comparing it to others with happy bow tied endings. Great comments Paul :)

[Amanda]

I love her other books but man does she write some dark characters. I like this though. It's more realistic than loving your narrator's character straight away. It's understandable that people want to like their characters though and I do too depending on what kind of book I'm reading.

[Ruth]

And what about after-the-ending? Might Amy have the trouble carrying to term that her mother experienced? Might a little reality intrude on the plot, with Amy finding she can't control the world? Might Nick just go away? Gone Boy, the sequel.

For me this book has but a passing resemblance to anything real. It lives in a generic bubble called psycho-thriller. It is just escapism - escape down a dark hole and shiver a bit - a fun journey, like a ghost train - real life comes back when you get off.

[Rita]

Glad I'm not alone on this one. At first, I thought what is the big deal, that book was terrible. But, the more I thought about it and let it sink in, I realized it was worth the read. Loved the ending, they both got what they deserved...each other! Can't wait to see the movie now.

[Michael]

I was so bored by the first half of the novel that I stopped reading, despite the glowing reviews it had garnered. Like you, I had no interest in what happened to these characters. And I generally don't need to like fictional characters in order to want to read about them. These ones were just annoying.

[Steph (loves water)]

This book messed with my head. I still don't think I've recovered.

As for her other two books, they are twisted and dark (probably like she is).

[Bev]

SushiSweetie wrote: "I hate everyone in this book. I kind of like Go and the police, oh and they comic ex and the friend from school...Everyone else...not so much. I am struggling to finish it. Whatever the actual e..."

[Bev]

I am one of the HATERS this book. I love a book with great characters. There was no one here that I liked.

[Chelsey]

I seriously loved this book. It was such a great read. I thought the plot and the suspense was perfect.

Some seriously frustrating and/or shocking bits in the book.

[Alicia]

I am not sure how forward I am looking to the movie, but I did really enjoy the book (Gone Girl). Lots of annoying things, though, but plenty of twists and turns. I would also recommend Flynn's other novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. Dark Places is my favorite of the three. All are different, but certainly have similar undertones.

[Daph]

I hate Flynn's endings because I want to know more. But that's the beauty of a good book, despite how much you connect with the characters (or not), it keeps the reader asking "and then what happened?". I can't even say how many times I've started and then stopped "Gone Girl." My God was the first third boring, but that's by design. Amy's design. The ending! I actually felt sorry for Nick and all the rest of Amy's victims--especially their child (is it Nick's kid?).

I've read that the ending was changed for the movie, will Amy's scheming backfire and her plotting wind her up in the grave?

Flynn has good chops. She's getting better and better with each book. "Sharp Object" is my favorite of hers, probably because it is so different than anything I've personally experienced. "Dark Places" comes in second--THAT ENDING! I don't think I've ever been more afraid for a character than I was for Libby in that last chapter.

[Melissa]

I normally have to like at least one character to like a book. I have a really hard time enjoying a book if I hate everyone. But I seriously couldn't put this one down. I tended to sympathize with Nick, even though he was kind of a scumbag, because at least he wasn't psychopathic... What I loved was that it was so incredibly unpredictable. I never knew what was going to happen next. And Amy? Lord, I had nightmares about her. I couldn't stop talking about the book to everyone, and that's what made it good.

[K]

I think one of Gillian Flynn's goals in writing this novel was to make the characters very unlikeable.

[joepr]

If you feel "hate" for the characters, don't you think the author did a great job for making you feel that intense? THAT WAS THE INTENTION. We are not meant to like them. Their poor personalities, egoistic drive and psychopathological ways is a very big part of the story.

[Prerna]

Why do you hate it? :O I LOVE it! It is so well-written. And don't get me wrong, I don't like either Amy or Nick, but I still love the plot. Reluctant admiration, I guess.