Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - A Book Review
Synopsis:
Who are you?
What have we done to each other?
These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy’s friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn’t true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren’t made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.
So what did happen to Nick’s beautiful wife?
Genre: Contemporary Mystery-Thriller
Tropes:
- Missing Person
- Infidelity
- Secrets
Gone Girl wasn’t my first venture into the work of the author Gillian Flynn. I first became familiar with her writing, when reading Dark Places for my letter D of my A to Z Reading Challenge.
I knew of Gone Girl through the movie adaptation, which I hadn’t seen fully, but was familiar with the premise of the story through snippets and clips of the movie on TikTok. When the time came to planning my challenge choices, Gone Girl was the first and only option for G that I thought of. The movie premise had interested me, so I knew I had to read the book before I fully watched the film – The whole read the book or watch the film first debate.
Follows Amy and Nick – a married couple on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. Nick continues with his normal everyday routine of going to work at the bar he owns (bought by Amy) who he shares with his twin sister Margot “Go”. When he starts working a shift at the bar, he’s contacted by his neighbour who is concerned about Amy due to their door being open and their indoor cat being outside.
Nick returns home to find Amy missing and an alarming scene in his home that suggests an altercation. This prompts him to contact the police for them to come and investigate his missing wife.
When the police arrive, they begin looking around their home for clues relating to Amy and in doing so, question Nick about Amy’s personality and daily routine habits. This leads Nick to present as being an uncaring husband as he’s unable to provide useful answers to the police. Nick is brought into questioning to help the detectives create an image around Amy, including the taking of his DNA to rule him out within their investigation. Nick later contacts Amy’s parents who are angry that he waited so long to contact them about their daughter.
The story follows the investigation into Amy’s disappearance with each chapter progressing through the number of days Amy has been missing, whilst alternative to preview diary entries written by Amy prior to her disappearance. During the investigation, Nick and Amy’s parents work with the detectives to provide clues that could solve what happened to her, where they look into her past relationships and how they could link to her disappearance. This leads Amy’s parents to disclose of a relationship she had with a man called Desi in her college years, who Amy attempted to leave him, he threatened his own suicide. During this conversation, Amy’s parents reveal the many incidents Amy has been involved in over the years where friends and partners have hurt her, out of jealousy that her parents are famous authors to the Amazing Amy series.
During the alternative chapters in Amy’s diary entry’s, Amy details the beginning of her and Nicks relationship and the type they had. During Nick’s chapters, he details how his marriage was starting to fail, which had lead him to develop resentment towards his wife.
The story reveals how Amy would carry out annual treasure hunts on their wedding anniversary for Nick to complete, that he hated as he would miss the clues that linked to their marriage. After the police find the first clue, Nick is encouraged to complete the treasure hunt as they believe it may help them with Amy’s case.
Nick begins embarking on the clues, which he seemingly finds easier than normal, which each clue takes him to the roots that are linked to his marriage.
The detectives reveal to Nick that the house had been staged to appear as an abduction of Amy, as they had found a significant amount of blood that had been poorly attempted to be cleaned and hidden. This leads police to suggest that he could be responsible.
Nick presented as being an uncaring husband who knew nothing about his wife’s health, friends and habits, which leads the police to be suspicious of his concern for his wife’s disappearance.
One of Amy’s neighbourhood friends, Noelle comes forward to the police that she was best friends with Amy – leading Nick to struggle to believe as Noelle had a certain personality that he believed Amy hated.
The couple had returned to Nicks childhood town to care for his mother who was dying of cancer and to support his sister in the care of his distanced father who had Alzheimers. This was a move that Amy was reluctant to make, but with the two of them unemployed, she had no choice.
It is revealed that Nick had been having an affair with a student of his called Andie, who was 23 years old, that had been going on for over a year, in which he had lost all feelings towards his wife. Nick’s sister Margot finds out about his affair when he attempts to sneak Andie out of her home.
As the detectives investigate, they come closer to evidence that suggests that Nick was responsible for his wife’s disappearance. This leads him to seek out the support of a lawyer who is well known for his experience of the same type of case – husband suspected of wife’s murder/disappearance.
After prompted by Amy’s parents, Nick goes to investigate Desi and other leads that could be responsible for Amy’s disappearance.
During Nick’s press conference, Noelle reveals that Amy was pregnant with their child, despite claims Nick didn’t want children. This leads to the public to believe his was responsible and therefore, hates by the public.
After meeting with the lawyer, Nick ends his affair with Andie as he’s advised to put of fear it could be revealed to the unsuspecting public.
Nick goes on a tv station to change the publics perception of him, but Andie reveals their affair before he can – leading him to become even more hated. However, he’s able to turn it around by playing the devastated husband card.
The story swaps to Amy’s pov at in the present, where it is learned that she’s ran away and staged her abduction/death after learning of Nicks infidelity.
Amy begins hiding out at a motel, where she chops and dies her hair to shed her former identity of Amy, while using the money she saved up to live on. Whilst at the motel, she uses it as an opportunity to watch the downfall of Nick on tv stations. After being at the motel for a while, she befriends a lady called Greta who quickly turns against her, along with a man who had been working at the motel. Amy becomes suspicious of their motives believing that they suspect she is Amy, so she begins packing up to leave. Only they arrive and steal her money, after discovering how much she had.
Amy is left with no money and no choice but to call upon the help of Desi – a high school lover who she had made an accusation against. After knowing she’s got no money or options, Desi persuades her to stay with him, where she can lie low until everything blows over. Only Desi uses Amy’s vulnerability to manipulate her into being his hostage, where he traps her in his home without Amy money or access codes to leave.
As Nick puts together the clues of the treasure hunt, he realises that they are all places that he was having an affair with Andie – leading him to realise that Amy knew and is therefore framing him for her murder as revenge. After discovering his affair, Amy began planting incriminating evidence that would frame Nick for her abduction and murder – spending habits that Nick accessed on their card with fingerprints on those items, graphic porn that suggests abuse and the diary entries where Amy had detailed the ‘abuse’ she had suffered which she had fabricated.
After his discovery, Nick begins to appeal on tv that he is the doting husband who is devastated by his wife’s disappearance and that he is extremely regretful of his affair and how he took Amy for granted. This is set to play Amy at her own game where he can convince her to return home, which as Amy watches, she begins to believe that Nick has changed. Amy realises that it is only a matter of time before Nick is arrested for her murder and faced with the death penalty, so she begins developing a plan on how she can leave Desi.
Amy decides to appeal to Desi’s infatuation with her and pretends she likes him, in order to trick him into letting his guard down. Amy sleeps with him, but makes her body look like she’s been abused and held hostage by him, after slipping him some sleeping pills.
To escape and make her story believable, she kills Desi and “escapes” back to Nick who is shocked at her arrival and unconvinced in her story.
After her return, the detectives question Amy and close up the cause, determining she was abducted by Desi.
Nick is still left unconvinced and asks for the truth from Amy, who does so only after she’s convinced he’s not wired to trap her. After Amy’s confession, he goes to the detectives who fail to believe his claims. However, he regularly meets with one of the detectives and his sister on how they can get Amy convicted, after neither of them are convinced on her story.
Amy and Nick continue to manipulate only another by pretending in their relationship. Amy is attempting to win back Nick, whilst Nick is attempting to earn her trust so he can strike. They both end up writing their separate tell all books and when Nick presents Amy with his finished version, which he will use to leave her, she reveals that she’s pregnant – therefore trapping Nick from ever leaving.
I was very apprehensive about reaching this point in my alphabetical challenge. This point of the reading challenge had book options from authors I’d previously read earlier in the challenge and struggled to connect with – Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and By a Thread/Forever Never by Lucy Score. So when I reached Gone Girl, it’s safe to say I was very apprehensive because I struggled to read Dark Places and that didn’t exactly leave me with hope towards reaching another book by the author.
I struggled to enjoy this book for the exact same reasons as Dark Places – I had no interest until around 60% in where the chapters went from 30 minutes long to around 5 minutes long. They just felt so long and filled with so much unnecessary content that had me bored and literally, falling asleep. Each night I tried to finish this book, I only lasted an hour before I was ready for bed 🥱.
I’m not sure why I didn’t enjoy this book because the storyline/plot is something that is right up my street, but the way it was executed was so boring. I quickly grew to hate the male character Nick, which made it extremely hard and unbearable to continue when the longer chapters were from his perspective. I found him to be such a horrible character that I can’t describe – he was so self absorbed and misogynistic, that I was feeling icky and ew towards his thoughts. He was such a red flag of a man and not in the “oh so attractive, he’s got red flags, but I’ll ignore them” type way, more of the “can I really continue reading about this man’s thoughts” way. I got bored of his constant repeating of how much he hated his wife, so when the affair was revealed, I wasn’t surprised. I also think the casting of him in the film was spot on – or maybe, I didn’t like him because of who he was casted as.
At the start I really felt for Amy and how her marriage had gone south and she was stuck with an uncaring husband – but I was also bored at her bland diary entries at the start.
Just like Dark Places, I really struggled with the understanding of the language used – it wasn’t even the language that was used, it was just the sentences that were formed felt more like another language when I read them. I would re read the same page over and over, but still wouldn’t understand what I’d read. Maybe it’s my small pea sized brain, that’s really suited towards easy, mystery and fluffy romance books that affected my understanding. I do think Gillian’s audience is targeted towards older people or people with higher IQ (than me).
Part of me really wanted to enjoy this book because as I’ve mentioned, the plot is right up my street – psychotic/deranged woman/wife who does something very questionable and shocking. Why wouldn’t I love it?!
I really wanted to like it, especially towards the end, but it just wasn’t shocking – Maybe it was because I sort of knew the premise?
It was a good plot but I was too bored from the beginning that my motivation was gone by the end – it was simply to have the book sealed off and finished so it could be completed for the letter G. I did seriously consider DNFing this book (when do I ever not say this), I was around 20% in and I was just thinking of how much I had ahead of me. I thought about walking away, marking it as DNFd in my journal BUT then I thought it wouldn’t count towards my challenge or my reading goal AND I wanted to know the ending – which I suppose I could’ve just watched the film (didn’t I say this with Dark Places?)
As with Dark Places, Gone Girl has left me with the same feelings of the author. I don’t think Flynn is an author I would visit again. If I were to be interested in her books, I think I would check there’s an adaptation of her work before committing to the book. I’ve seen Sharp Objects is a film, so that might be on my watch list next.
I’m left feeling meh because her books must be good if 3 of them have been turned into screen adaptations – so what is wrong with me that I don’t love them?
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Georgia
♥
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