Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
(Audio)
Terrified that someone was going to spoil this for me (thank you, Academy Awards) I quickly got this book out of the library and earread it. I actualyl didn't know a thing about the book going into it except this: 1- they made a movie out of it and 2- it was about a wife who disappeared and it looked like the husband had killed her. That is, in fact, what the book is about. But there's so much more to it as well I hadn't dreamed would be there.
The book alternates between accounts from Nick, the husband, and Amy, the wife, as the detectives, media, general public, and the reader try to get closer and closer to the truth of what happened to Amy. One day she's there, and then (on the morning of their 5-year anniversary) she is gone. There are so many clues to wade through--differing accounts, mysterious phone calls, a crime scene in their living room and another in the kitchen, the wandering and spiteful senile father who keeps showing up, the annual treasure hunt clues Amy left for Nick before she "disappeared," and, of course, her diary.
Because we get different points of view presented to us, the reader never knows what the actual truth is. And I spent a good portion of the book convinced of something that didn't actually end up being true (note: that something was not that Nick killed his wife; I thought something completely different that didn't pan out AT ALL). Nick is a former reporter/writer and Amy is a sort of celebrity and the daughter of psychologists who wrote a book series called Amazing Amy. Both husband and wife are extremely smart and very good with words. This is another book where the words themselves were almost orgasmically good to read. I loved the way sentences came together. I loved the realistic way people spoke. And I LOVED the observations the characters make. They see things that I would NEVER have seen. They make observations I would NEVER have thought to make. So there is a little bit of a case of "unreliable narrator" going on here, but there's also a case of "narrator who seems so damn much and is so damn good at explaining what's going on you can't help but believe it and think it's the truth."
I was so impressed by the writing but also by the twists and turns, the layers and deception. If you gave me the rest of my life, I could NEVER have written a book so complex. I love psychological thrillers that actually make me feel. And this one made me feel ALL THE THINGS. I was scared, I was nervous, I was angry. I said the word "crazypants!" out loud in the car probably no fewer than 20 times. Also, I feel like a horrible person for liking it as much as I did. Terrible, horrible things happen in this book. Things that are illegal. Things that are mean. Things that are crazy. And I loved it. I loved hating characters. I loved sticking up for characters. I loved that it was so messed up so perfectly. This book WORKED for me. But it also turned me upside-down so many times I don't know how to be a normal person any more. Am I supposed to have liked scene X? Should I have been more outraged at scene Y? What does it say about me that I liked scene A more than scene B? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FUNCTION ANYMORE AS A HUMAN BEING! Have I been doing it wrong all these years? Am I thinking wrong? Should I be thinking this complexly about real world situations? Is that what normal brains are like? Or are all the characters just plain crazypants? I DON'T KNOW! But I loved that the book took me there. And I hate that the book took me there.
I'm so glad I read this before I could get spoiled. All the twists and turns, all the shifts and changes, all the clues and the mystery--it wouldn't have been the same if I'd known the truth all along. It would be interesting to read this book a second time and see if my reaction is any different. But I'm not sure I can put myself through a second reading--certainly not one right away. I need to switch to some lighter juvie fiction for a while. Because this was dark. And am I crazypants for loving how dark it was? I just don't know...