Gone Girl Book Review

This review will be SPOILER FREE.

The latest blockbuster to hit cinema screens in the UK is Gone Girl, a mystery/thriller based on the popular Gillian Flynn novel. After seeing trailers for the film I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the premise, the fact that it stars Neil Patrick Harris also helped. In line with what people describe as my hipster nature (I swear I’m not), I decided to read the novel before I go and see the film (OK maybe I am a bit of a hipster).

The premise of the novel is:

After five years of marriage (which has become progressively hostile), Nick Dunne comes home to discover his wife, Amy, is missing.  With no clues as to what happened other than a battlefield of a living room and the treasure hunt his wife had prepared for their anniversary. Soon Amy’s disappearance attracts the attention of the media, starting a state-wide manhunt that demands answers from Nick, who soon finds himself the prime suspect. Could the treasure hunt be the key to finding his wife, saving his marriage and himself?

Gone Girl (the novel) takes an interesting narrative viewpoint, the chapters alternate between the present from Nick's point of view and Amy’s diary extracts at key points in their past. In this way the reader gets to know both character's inner thoughts and often hear their opinion in very specific detail. We are inside both of their heads which helps create an intimate connection with them. At first having every opinion expressed made it seem rather slow and too hung up on precise detail. I found the first few chapters a bit of a slog, feeling like it was a little unnecessary to know what Nick thought about crepes. Then something clicked, and turned to the books advantage. I began to feel rather uncomfortable as I read. Seeing reflections of my personal relationships within their own, believe me this made me worry, their lives are not not something you want to replicate. However, this is the power Gone Girl has over its reader. By feeling intimately connected with the characters you gain an understanding of why their lives were doomed when they became entwined. It may be too late to save them (not a spoiler), but not yourself.

I did find some reassurance after I finished, and I realised that the sensation I felt was merely an illusion. I had felt a similar feeling when I read Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test. In one chapter Ronson described how a psychopath acts, I found myself thinking:

     ‘Oh god I match this profile!’ 

Thankfully, the passage that followed this stated that a key flaw of a psychopath is that they would never imagine themselves to be one. There is a natural response in humans to see ourselves in everything we read. It’s the same thing that makes hypochondriacs thinking they will soon stop ticking.

Gone Girl evoked a very real sense of fear for me. Not a fear constructed from horror, but a much more chilling one. A fear based in reality, the possibility that our lives are beyond our control. The underlining message of the book concerns manipulation of the people by different sources. Characters in the novel are controlled by the pressures they face, whether that be from loved ones, society or the media. It made me start to question my own life, which created a polar response in my mind. Part of me wanted to throw the book down and shut myself away from questioning my life, whilst half of me was hooked in a morbid fascination and hope I could learn how to overcome any threats to myself. Of course these fears are unfounded, and I soon shed their power over me when I reached the conclusion.

Gillian Flynn’s characters are therefore, warrant of praise; rarely do I read a novel which contains such realistic depictions as those in Gone Girl. Even the characters that only appear on the side-lines of the story are fleshed out in just enough detail. The relationships between them are believable too. Its exploration of marriage, blood ties and friendship is brutally honest and doesn’t pull punches. I saw reflections in many of my family ties whilst reading too.

More praise has to be given to the clever narrative, which as I mentioned lets the reader know the inner-most thoughts of Amy and Nick; despite this, the narrators can  also be very unreliable. We may know what they are thinking, but that doesn’t mean we have the full clarity of their intentions. Throughout the book I wanted to believe that Nick was innocent, yet I was in as much doubt as the characters within the novel. At one point Nick checks an unregistered phone with little reference to why he is carrying one or how long he has had it. By withholding the right amount of information to the reader Flynn kept me guessing all the way through.

My only nit-pick with the book is some of the events that lead up to its final act. A few events felt a bit rushed and inconsequential other than to drive the plot forward. That isn’t to say that they aren’t needed and they do serve a purpose. But, any other manner of events could have been used and they felt a bit unrelated to what had come before.

Gone Girl in my opinion is great and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in crime thrillers and mystery. Having said that, I am not a reader of those genres myself and still I was enthralled. I loved the in-depth discussion the book had about relationships and power plays, which kept me hooked and philosophising throughout.  




Cover image from esquire,