Review of "Gone Girl" [87]

Gone Girl By Gillian Flynn
Random House Audio, ISBN 978-0385366755
 July 24, 2012

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When we first meet Nick and Amy, they are riding high.
We hear how they met and fell in love, married and started life in New York City, living in a charming town house. He is a magazine writer, she writes quizzes, maybe not their dream jobs but very nice. Even when he gets laid off in the bad economy, they do not panic. They have Amy's trust fund from the books her parents wrote about a cute little girl based on Amy when she was little to fall back on.

But then things start to go downhill very quickly, and they are compelled to move back to Nick's hometown in the Midwest, a place that is itself down on it's luck.
Then, on the morning of their 5th wedding anniversary, Amy disappears and soon Nick looks like the number one suspect.

But what has really happened? Has there been foul play. Or has something very different happen. Is Nick guilty...well, it is soon clear he is certainly guilty of something! But the more you read, less and less sure will you be of everything you thought at first. Bit by but, everything you though you knew about these two is turned on it's head, as we listen in on Nick's present day narrative of what is going on as the investigation starts and as we read excerpts from Amy's diary from years ago up to the present. Just when you think you have a handle on what is going on, Flynn slips in a line that has you saying, "What?? Wait a minute..WHAT??" and turning everything on it's head. Very clever...and that is all I will say about the plot! Maybe I have already said too much. But I must convince you to read it if you foolishly have not yet.

I am, as is often true, late to this book, but I was waiting to get it on audio from my library. And while I am no audio expert, I though this was quite well done. My only complaint is that I was listening to it in the car and my commute is way to short for a really good book. And yes, as just about every review out there has said, this is a Really Good Book. I love a good thriller but this is way beyond your typical good thriller. Dark and clever and more than a bit disturbing in a very, very real way.

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