{Review} GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn

O P E N I N G   H O O K:

part one 

BOY LOSES GIRL 

NICK DUNNE 

THE DAY OF 

WHEN I THINK OF MY WIFE, I ALWAYS THINK OF HER HEAD.  The shape of it, to begin with.  The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it.  Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil.  She had what the Victorians would call a finely shaped head. You could imagine the skull quite easily.  
I'd know her head anywhere.
And what's inside it.  I think of that too: her mind.  Her brain, all those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast, frantic centipedes.  Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts.  What are you thinking, Amy?  The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer.  What are you thinking?  How are you feeling?  Who are you?  What have we done to each other?  What will we do?

(Page 3, US hardcover first edition)

This book is really hard to talk about without giving major plot points away.  I went into GONE GIRL blind.   Over the summer, I picked up an ARC of this book because I recognized the name Gillian Flynn.  I'd attempted to read one of her previous novels, DARK PLACES, but didn't have time before it was due back at the library, and never took it out again.  I figured I'd try again with her new novel.  I didn't have time for it, though, and as the months went by, GONE GIRL hit the New York Times Best Seller List...and sits there still.  It became "GONE GIRL the Best Seller," not just a little niche book from an author I someday wanted to read.  Despite all the buzz surrounding the title, I still knew nothing about what it entailed because I hate reading summaries that may give the plot of a book away (I pick up on little clues really easily).

I never could have predicted GONE GIRL.  Just when you think you have things figured out, Flynn twists you around, then spins you again.  Then again.  And that ending!  As soon as you finish reading this book, you need to talk about it with someone else who has read it.  It is absolutely a Book Club candidate.  I'm lucky enough to know two people who have read this book, so we had two very fueled conversations.  I just...you cannot even imagine.

Flynn is brilliant at putting together the pieces of a marriage, then deconstructing them.  She reveals the reality of what many marriages one day face as they deteriorate over time.  When tragedy strikes and a wife turns up missing, Flynn delves into the truth behind what happened.  Was she kidnapped?  Is the husband hiding something?  What is going on?  GONE GIRL alternates between the husband's POV "The Day Of" and the wife's backstory is told through diary entries, piecing together a life gone dangerously wrong.

The book does begin on a slow note.  It was easy for me to pick it up, then put it back down again.  I did this on and off during lunch breaks for a few days.  One night, I picked it up, and erroneously decided to read a couple more chapters before turning in for the night.  I didn't realize that the speed of the book was about to change.  As soon as you hit this one part of the book about a third of the way in, Flynn sends you hurtling into the story.  It's no longer easy to put down.  I wound up staying up until 2 a.m. because I physically had to know how the book ended.  There is absolutely nothing predictable, and Flynn leaves readers breathless as they journey through her pages.  If you're looking for a great, suspenseful novel, check out GONE GIRL.  There's a reason it's been a Best Seller with massive Word of Mouth this year!

~*~

C O V E R   D E S I G N:

I could take or leave this cover.  It doesn't initially stand out to me.  It's very dark, though I do love the pop of color used for the title/author.  I also like the pop of bright yellow when talking about the author's previous two novels.  These pops really brighten everything up and draw your attention!

  I do like the symbolic image, the way the hair is disappearing and gone, though on first glance, I didn't necessarily pick up on it.

  ~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title:  GONE GIRL
Author: Gillian Flynn

Release Date: Out June 5, 2012

Publisher: Crown / Random House

Received: For Review

SUMMARY:

Marriage can be a real killer. 

One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” GONE GIRL’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. 

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet? 

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around