Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)

quote goodreads

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.

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In addition to being one of 2012's most talked about and best-selling books, Gone Girl is the topic of this month's Neo Book Club. This thread will take on the purpose of the club's discussion for the next month.

Reading begins once the book is in your hands, but spoiler tags must be applied for the respective parts until the marked calendar day has passed.
When in doubt, refer to this:


Participants:
Golden Miru warrior
Celes Leonhart
Toby
Matty
Mouldy Cheese
Wilhelm Ryan
spikerdude
Anton Herrera

Christ this is fantastic from the get-go. I'm probably never going to get a chance to keep Night Circus going now Golden Miru warrior - I was hoping I wouldn't like this much and be prepared to balance :@

In other news I was sure you said the first part was the smallest. Turns out it finishes about half way by the looks of things.

Can I be added to the first post? Suddenly apprehensive of being finished the first part by the 9th. Might have to put in some man hours tomorrow now!

Apparently my copy was shipped 5 days ago so FINGERS CROSSED that it get here soon ><

Golden Miru warrior can I request that the final review session be held on the Friday or Satuday, not Sunday? Everyone else's Sunday night is my Monday morning when I'll be at work every week ><

so apparently, my library has me as the 400th hold or something like that and I'm like 'you trippin'.

So like, I ordered it on BN.com today, so I'm getting it when it comes lol.

Completely agree Matty. There's been quite a few passages that have struck me strongly and that was indeed one of them, simply because it was completely right. Everything is a mould and how we play it is pre-determined.

Have to say this is one of the hardest reads I've ever had to do. I'm normally a man of love, romance and fantasy and what started optimistic has turned into a continuous slope of struggle and pain. It reminds me of when I saw Revolutionary Road at the cinema the first time (lots of similar ideas actually, now that I think on it) and how agonising I found it to watch, but how highly I appreciated that film, and for it to be crafted in a way that still makes me completely uncomfortable with abortion. Or another film similar, Blue Valentine; structured similarly to this with the paralleled present and happy-past-progressing-decline. But that's just a meandering thought: this book has the same effect on me, and growing ever closer to the end of Part One I almost felt like I wanted to cry through it.

Baring in mind I haven't read any of Part Two yet: Who Dunnit, I have no idea. At times I think Nick is completely insane and he did do it, then more obvious suspects seem to light up in my head (Andie, Nick's dad) and then I think Nope, there's two more parts left - it's not that easy. Simply, if it is Nick, I don't want it to be him. That's not the happy ending I want, the optimism. Honestly, as much as a bastard Nick really is, in him I see myself. All his traits, everything of how he's developed, I completely relate to as soul crushing as that is.

In terms of writing as well, worth noting: absolutely wonderful. Really engaged. The structuring is fantastic, the pacing superb; every time I think a status quo has been established and I expect it to drag, it doesn't, it changes.

How's everyone else coming along? Sorry, a day short.

Oops. Sorry Matty - there's some hints in my post there to some of the coming points before the end of Part One, sorry! In all honesty I just sat down and read 100 pages in a sitting to catch up, having been too busy lately to get much further than that.

You bring up a good point I thought on a couple days ago as well though, her characterisations of each narrator are fantastic. I mean the giveaway is she's a psychologist so this'll easily be her speciality but to be so defined in each characters' head, each so completely [alien as you said it] to each other, is amazing.

I've actually come to be very distrusting of Amy by the end. As much as Nick is a compulsive liar, Amy has a lot of secrets and someone trying uphold the self-righteous tone every chapter (I'm trying to make this work, I will keep trying to make this work) it's a lot more hypocritical than in comparison Nick, who has no pretence, he just has nothing.

It's not that I find Nick's collapse as a person hard-to-take at all, I actually find that relative to me and am on board in that sense, it's moreso the dissolution of the marriage and gradual decline you know there's no rainbow at the end (at least not yet) that breaks me apart, and Amy's suffering determination to be miserable.

I'm so excited to read part 1!!
Hopefully the book will be waiting for me when I get home on Monday and I can power through it ^^

Also, the bookshop lied to me! They said they weren't getting it in for a month and when I went in last week BAM there it was, sitting on the shelf a week after I ordered it online.

Bastards :<