01 Sep / Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Now that we’re in the final weekend of summer, I figured today was the right day to choose what was apparently the title this season (yes, I do open the occasional mega-bestseller, the few times I crawl out from under my rock).
Since Reese Witherspoon’s production company bought the film rights for a reported $1.5 million (“according to a person familiar with the deal,” according to a July 19 article in the Wall Street Journal), Girl will be headed to every multiplex near you … but you still have a chance to go read the book first! Not to mention, I just can’t imagine Witherspoon playing a convincing Amy Dunne, so better to form your own image before Hollywood ruins (whoops!) your experience. One hopeful detail: author Gillian Flynn herself is currently slated to write the script.
I knew little about Girl when I hit ‘play’ on the iPod. And yes, Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne make for a fine pair of antagonistic narrators; they’re both quite talented at upping the creep factor in just the right places. I’m convinced the less you know, the better your read is going to be … so don’t go looking for any spoilers!
Amy and Nick Dunne are the beautiful young couple who have valiantly returned from their glamorous lives in New York City to Nick’s hometown of Carthage, Missouri, to help care for his ailing mother. Nick and his twin sister Go have opened a neighborhood bar, with generous support from Amy’s trust fund. All her life, Amy has been the star of her own book series, Amazing Amy, thanks to her writer parents who have gained both fame and fortune with their prolific literary exploits.
Then on the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears. Signs of violent struggle are left behind in their McMansion on the banks of the Mississippi River. Of course, Nick becomes the primary suspect … and that will be the last ‘of course’ you’ll encounter through the 400+ pages (or 19+ hours if you choose to go the highly recommended audible route).
As Nick and Amy take turns telling their side of the story, just remember this: trust no one.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2012
I absolutely loved this book. It was haunting and crazy and believable all at once. I’ll be very interested to see how the movie turns out. I agree with your thoughts on Reese as Amy…I think I’d rather see a lesser-known actress play her character.
Oh, yes … someone lesser known who would surprise us all! Give someone else a chance! Not that I have anything against Reese (don’t even know her, obviously! — and good for her production company for buying rights AND contracting Flynn herself to write the script), but from what I’ve seen of her as an actor, I just can’t see her as Amy.
I ordered Flynn’s other titles … have you read any of them? Stay tuned for more Flynn posts at some point soon-ish … maybe? Oh, so many books, so little time indeed!
Thanks for visiting BookDragon. Hope you find other good reads here — oh, oh … since you liked Gone Girl, might I suggest Turn of Mind, actually?
No, I have never read anything else by Flynn, this is my first of hers. But I read the first few pages of her two other books in the back of “Gone Girl” and they really peaked my interest. I’ll have to try them out and will be interested to see your reviews on them. Have not read “Turn of Mind” either, I’ll have to put it on my list!
I just finished my own review of “Gone Girl” on my site–I’d love to know your thoughts on it!
Most definitely agree: “It was OUT. OF. CONTROL. Seriously.”
Had to chuckle (uncomfortably, empathetically!) with this: “At one point during reading I literally looked at my boyfriend (who I’ve been dating for almost a decade and have known since middle school) and said ‘I am SO glad I have known you practically all of your life. It keeps me from running the risk of you being a psycho and me not knowing about it.’ But really, you can’t help but thinking that after reading this book.”
Trust no one for sure!
I wholeheartedly agree that the less you know, the better the book will be! Flynn’s book was so full of twists and turns, shocks, lies, psychosis, that it is a book that has stuck in my mind for a long time.
But Reese as Amy? No thank you.
Yes, DEFINITELY! Flynn took that unreliable narrator thing to a whole new level … and it was just delicious, confusing, mind-blowing FUN.
No, no, no to Reese! I’m not such a big film buff in general, but I could definitely see Charlize Theron being a most excellent Amy.
Good casting choice! Theron can be bitchy as well as super charming, which is good for the role obviously!!!!
An interesting novel. Has unusual elements of story telling. Must say that it tries to look at the world as seen through the eyes of the girl and boy separately.
Story telling hinges on whether someone lied. As a reader you can’t make out much !
Has slightly predictable stuff towards the end.
perhaps the only problem is that you will not sympathize with either the man or the woman. But then the author tries to portray a realistic image of a person with all their faults and foibles. An average man and woman.
Slightly graphic descriptions of a sensual or sexual nature. Could have been managed better.
Does not really fit into the thriller genre.