Gone Girl

Amy Dunne goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary to Nick. Nick is evasive and it becomes clear he has secrets, he’s telling lies to the cops and he keeps envisioning his wife’s bashed in head. But is Nick a killer? Flynn keeps the suspense building and the reader guessing as the pages fly by.

The novel is told in the shifting voices of Amy and Nick, as Nick faces the aftereffects of Amy’s disappearance and the reader is treated to conflicts in Nick’s actions and behavior. Amy’s story is told in diary entries leading up to the day of her disappearance.

As the story continues to unravel it’s clear things are not all cut and dry and Flynn takes the reader on a wonderfully twisted and heart-pounding exploration of Amy’s disappearance and the events in her marriage that may or may not have led to her disappearance.

I loved the shifting perspectives of Nick and Amy. It gave more depth to the characters as well as the story and raises the bar in the guessing game of did he, didn’t he. Nick’s chapters focus on the disappearance and investigation while Amy’s focuses on the backstory of their marriage.

There are twists and turns, a few of which I expected but most of which I did not and Flynn does it so perfectly she just slides it in when you least expect it.  The writing is brilliant and edgy. Flynn is a powerful storyteller and takes an oft told story and shapes it into something great with layer after layer of intrigue and deception.

At the heart of this book is a novel about marriage and love and how that can change over time and become something dark and far from the love and devotion it started as.

Another aspect of the novel Flynn delves into is the media as judge and jury. In today’s world, you can turn on the news and there is bound to be a story about a missing woman and the husband as the prime suspect. We’ve all seen Dateline but can the media skew our perspective, of course. Does it mean all husbands are guilty, no.  Nick appears guilty at times, in front of the camera and off, but just because he comes across negatively in the press, should we assume he killed Amy?

I am finding it really difficult to talk about this book because I don’t want to give anything away. All I can say is pick up this book and read it, you won’t be disappointed, and it’s well worth it. I hesitated for a long time before giving in, writing it off as something that wouldn’t live up to the hype but in this case I was wrong, it deserves the hype, Flynn as proven she is a master storyteller and I’m looking forward to reading her other books.