Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – a review

This was another Harrogate purchase. Gillian was talking in the America’s Got Talent session at Harrogate which was one of my favourites. I had previously read her novel ‘Dark Places’ which you may remember I thought was excellent (and if you don’t remember it can be found here) so I was definitely excited to read this book.

Gone Girl begins with Nick’s wife Amy going missing. The story is told from his point of view, yet you soon realise what an unreliable narrator he is. For the first part of the book it looks a pretty much cut and dried case of abusive husband kills wife, at least that’s what her ‘doting’ parents think. However things soon become more complicated as Amy’s voice begins to be heard through her diary pages, and twists and turns being to mount.

I found this book utterly compelling and couldn’t wait to get to the end, whilst wanting it not to stop. It was a clever plot that meant you were constantly shifting your allegiances between characters. Whilst you start out believing Amy to be the innocent party and believing Nick to be a killer, this is clearly a case of both parties being as bad as each other. It was a great portrayal of a marriage that I suspect many can relate to, a couple scoring points against each other, blaming each other for mistakes in their own lives, generally only being happy when they’ve made the other one unhappy.

The writing was fast paced, and the differing view points were interesting and clearly defined. My only slight criticism was that the shortening of Nick’s sisters name to Go confused me a little at times, but then I’m easily confused!

I would definitely recommend this clever story to anyone who enjoys the likes of Sophie Hannah, and Greg Hurwitz. I think Gillian Flynn is well on the way to becoming one of my favourite authors.