Stunning. Captivating. Sick. Deceptive. Engrossing.
I had committed to reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn well before I struck my ban on popular best selling fiction and let me just tell you...wow. This may just be one of the most engrossing, dramatic, emotional roller coasters of a book I have ever read in a long while. Let me reiterate a couple of points to set the scene. A. I do not like crime stories B. I do not like popular fiction. C. I do not like ‘mysteries’ in the modern sense. Gone Girl is all three of these things and I am still beside myself with how much I liked it.
The story centers on ‘amazing’ Amy Elliot, yes the girl who the insanely popular book series is based off of, and her ken doll perfection of a husband Nick Dunne. We learn about their lives and how perfect they seem to everyone else and to each other at the onset of the narrative. The marriage had started to hit some rough patches, but all relationships do; nothing out of the ordinary. Nick comes home on the afternoon of their fifth wedding anniversary to find the remains of what looks to be a struggle and his wife missing. Within 24 hours Nick becomes suspect number one with all evidence and signs pointing to the cliche of ‘the husband did it’. Nick swears his innocence but his personal emotional short comings and less than respectful behavior are doing him no favors with the press, Amy’s parents, or the police. When all signs lead to only one conclusion, the author throws us some serious groundbreaking curve balls that send your emotions and mind reeling. The injustice of the surprises will make you angry and then make you question your entire thought process from the beginning. The story is told through Nick’s first person, real life entries and retrospectives from Amy’s diary which gives the unique ability to be able to hear from the suspect and the missing victim at the same time. I don’t want to even foreshadow anymore because the shock value needs to remain pure and I will call bullshit on anyone who reads this book and then tells me ‘I saw it coming the whole time’ because if you do you’re a rat bastard liar.
This murder mystery story will leave you wondering how people are capable of some things, how someone thinks of this narrative, and how it is possible to become so invested in people you know don’t exist. There were moments when I wanted to get a plane to save these people and scream the truth that only I, as the reader, knew. There are moments when you want to reach through the page and slap someone so hard and make them wake up! This book works on such a deep psychological level for the readers it’s a bit scary. You just lean back sometimes throughout and wonder if in fact you’re the crazy one and not the characters in the story.
This book has gained its popularity and reputation for the right reasons. There are entirely valid reasons for why this book has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for 39 consecutive week and still holds the #4 spot. It is a phenomenal story. Will it go down as a classic of all time, probably not, but for me it had all the elements that I look for in novels and do not usually find in modern print. When everything is so massed produce and just re-branded this is a new story that will leave you with all the feelings and questions that good stories do. Well done Mrs. Flynn, I look forward to us meeting again sometime soon.
4.5 out of 5 stars. Seriously, read this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment