Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn
Release Date: June 5th, 2012
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Pages: 415
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Age Group: Adult

 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?

What can I say? This book, I had thought, was a cut and dry novel and all fingers pointed to the husband. All I could do was say, "It was him! It was him!" I mean, seriously, Nick gave me plenty of reasons to hate him. He was so...irksome.

Okay, so I'm jumping a little ahead of myself. First, I just want to say, this novel is not like any crime mystery book where all the evidence is laid out for the reader and it isn't until our protagonist makes the connections that everyone does a mental hand slap and think, "Ooh," or, at least that's how it is for me. Anyways, this wasn't the case at all.

From page one I could tell that these two were not your...typical, let's say, couple. In fact, they were just two people who could make a girl afraid of marriage. I have seen a lot of happy marriages last thirty plus years, but reading this, I just wanted to duck and cover at the prospect of it. The story is told from Nick's side and from Amy's diary entries, and on both sides it all just sounds so bad. Nick feels Amy is too cold to him, and Amy feel that Nick is too cold to her. And how the startling revelation of it all really puts the idea of marriage into prospective.

I can't really speak on the subject too much. I mean, I'm a nineteen year old girl who's never been on a date before, so I have no experience on how relationships in general should work, but I have some ideas. And one thing this book points out that I think is the central theme is simple: You never really know who you are married to. Some couples can swear on their graves they know their significant inside and out, but I can honestly say that no couple here can claim to know every thought their significant other has had. Every secret they've kept and who, exactly, are they when no one is looking?

It's chilling to think that the person that you wake up to in the morning, sit down and have breakfast with, hold conversations for so many years, is someone you know intimately and know them inside and out, but another side of them comes out whenever you aren't looking.

When it comes time for Nick and Amy to look into their relationship, the prospect gives me chills.

Some people, and I do use this loosely, wear different masks all the time. Shedding one mask and putting on another for different people or at different points in that person's life can become as easy as taking off and putting on clothes. Done so effortlessly that the people around that person have no idea, at times, just who they are dealing with. This becomes something that sticks out a lot for me when I was reading this book, and I find it to be true. And what makes it even worse is that when your true self or the true self of your significant other comes to light there's really no way to go back and undo.

And, I don't want to give too much away, but the novel is constructed in three parts. And as it progresses, I found myself reading part three almost like a bad comedy. I can't go too deep into this, but I still felt like sharing. I laughed at some of the most inappropriate places and I don't know if that was the intention of the author or not, but it couldn't be helped.

Overall, I gave this book five stars because Flynn is a mastermind of plot twists. Once you think you know where the story is going she suddenly surprises you by doing a complete 180 leaving you wondering what just happened. For all the mystery lovers out there, I would say take a look at this. For all those reader's out there that love good mind games, hit this one up. I highly recommend it.