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Gone Girl Kindle Edition
THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON
OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
THE BOOK THAT DEFINES PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
Who are you?
What have we done to each other?
These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?
'Flynn is a brilliantly accomplished psychological crime writer and this latest book is so dark, so twisted and so utterly compelling that it actually messes with your mind' DAILY MAIL
'A near-masterpiece. Flynn is an extraordinary writer who, with every sentence, makes words do things that other writers merely dream of' SOPHIE HANNAH, Sunday Express
'You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing's as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch' THE TIMES
'One of the most popular thrillers of the year is also one of the smartest... Flynn's book cleverly outpaces its neo-noir trappings and consistently surprises the reader.' FINANCIAL TIMES
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From the Publisher



Product description
Review
An utterly gripping thriller ― EMERALD STREET
(GONE GIRL) turned the rules of your average psychological thriller inside-out...it's breathtaking ― THE TIMES
Immensely dark and deeply intelligent, Gone Girl is a book about how well one person can truly know another ― METRO
A brilliant switchback ride, you'll beg others to read it so you can discuss it with them -- John Williams ― IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY
Just about everyone I meet, and everyone on Twitter, is telling me it's brilliant, so I can't wait to see what the fuss is all about. -- S.J Watson ― SUNDAY EXPRESS
The set-up is simple: girl goes missing, husband looks increasingly suspect. But there's much more going on beneath the surface of this fiendishly clever thriller" ― VOGUE
A stunning psychological thriller to send a chill through the heart of every married couple... Read it now, it is that good. -- Geoffrey Wansell ― DAILY MAIL
Exhilarating and creepy, it has sent me rushing off to her other novels. -- Tracey Thorn ― NEW STATESMAN
A completely gripping account of a dysfunctional (is there any other sort?) marriage. -- Rachel Johnson ― METRO
Flynn keeps the accelerator firmly to the floor, ratcheting up the tension with wildly unexpected plot twists, contradictory stories and the tantalising feeling that nothing is as it seems. Deviously good. ― MARIE CLAIRE
A chilling, stylish read about another unknowable woman ― ELLE
A tautly written thriller about the unravelling of a marriage that is deservedly topping the bestseller charts. ― THE OBSERVER
she skillfully manages to sustain tension and uncertainty to the end, as well as presenting a beautiful portrait of marriage disintegration -- Marcel Berlins ― THE TIMES
These voices are wonderfully authentic, to the point where the reader becomes a gawker at the full-spectrum of marital dysfunction. Excellent. -- John O'Connor ― THE GUARDIAN
Flynn has created a gripping tale and a page-turner. ― LITERARY REVIEW
Flynn is a brilliantly accomplished psychological crime writer and this latest book is so dark, so twisted and so utterly compelling that it actually messes with your mind -- Carla McKay ― DAILY MAIL
A chilling tale of a hip, New York couple's failing marriage: smart, suspenseful and brilliantly written, Gone Girl is a class act ― THE INDEPENDENT
The story of a husband searching for his vanished wife has everything - psychological acuity, humour, an unflagging pace and more twists than you could hope for in your most serpentine dreams...a sumptuous, satisfying read. ― STYLIST
Gripping thriller: Nick's wife, Amy, is missing and he's a suspect. The story is told by Nick, then Amy, but who's telling the truth? ― ESSENTIALS
funny, cunning thriller... the tale takes some stomach-churning turns, right to its chilling conclusion ― PSYCHOLOGIES
a terrifically intelligent thriller with a gasp-inducing twist ― GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
in this riveting noirish thriller and intense dissection of a marriage, nothing is as it seems. ― WOMAN AND HOME
Flynn's portrait of a woman trying to please an impossible husband is subtly drawn, but there are hints that all is not as it seems. One version of events hides another in a novel that cleverly manipulates the reader -- Joan Smith ― SUNDAY TIMES
I'm currently reading Gone Girl, a brilliant novel about how we never quite know the people we fall in love with. It's one of those novels that you discuss endlessly with your closest friends. ― Sharleen Spiteri, lead singer in Texas
In what is so much more than a straightforward crime novel (with a mid-story twist so shocking you'll drop the book), Flynn unpicks the minutiae of the couple's personalities and relationship ― EASY LIVING
One of the most popular thrillers of the year is also one of the smartest... Flynn's book cleverly outpaces its neo-noir trappings and consistently surprises the reader. ― FINANCIAL TIMES
The story-telling is incredibly compelling, with the cunning opening mystery soon turning down unpredictable routes, while the characters are superbly believable. No wonder it's the book that everyone seems to be reading. -- Boyd Hilton ― HEAT MAGAZINE
Gone Girl is superbly constructed, ingeniously paced and absolutely terrifying... a Five-star suspense mystery. -- AN Wilson ― READERS' DIGEST
This thriller is the must-read of the year. ― THE SUN
definitely a contender for thriller of the year... Flynn is, without a doubt, at the front of the pack of American thriller writers. -- Doug Johnstone ― THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Read Gone Girl: The Thriller of 2012... Flynn relentlessly plays with her reader, dangling hints and hushing up truths through two narrators who become more and more unreliable as the plot unravels. -- Jessica Whiteley ― STYLIST
You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing's as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch -- Kate Saunders ― THE TIMES
Gone Girl should be the big poolside read this year. Fresh out om paperback, it's a page-turning abduction mystery with an awful lot of twists. ― MAIL ON SUNDAY
Single-handedly defines a genre of Media Gothic -- Brooke Magnanti ― TATLER
This is Flynn's third novel and she's more than found her voice, creating taut, thrilling, deeply intense narratives about characters very much on the edge -- Henry Sutton ― DAILY MIRROR
Gone Girl confirms that Gillian Flynn is the smartest new crime writer for years. -- John Williams ― MAIL ON SUNDAY
Ms Flynn's latest novel of psychological suspense will confound anyone trying to keep up with her quicksilver mind and diabolical rules of play ― INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
a brilliant, darkly comic tale -- Laura Wilson ― THE GUARDIAN
Flynn, an extraordinarily good writer, plays her readers with the finesse and delicacy of an expert angler. She wields her unreliable narrators to stunning effect, baffling, disturbing and delighting in turn, practically guaranteeing an immediate reread once her terrifying, wonderful conclusion is reached... an early contender for thriller of the year, and an absolute must-read. -- Alison Flood ― THE OBSERVER
a near-masterpiece. Flynn is an extraordinary writer who, with every sentence, makes words do things that other writers merely dream of" -- Sophie Hannah ― SUNDAY EXPRESS
If you haven't yet caught up with this word-of-mouth bestseller - about a woman's mysterious disappearance and the secrets she and her husband are keeping - get hold of it soon. It really does live up to the hype. ― WOMAN MAGAZINE
Toxic marriage simmers in this thriller with a gasp-inducing twist. ― GRAZIA
From the Author
From the Inside Flap
From the Back Cover
The Ddictive No. 1 US Bestseller that everyon eis talking about
Who are you?
What have we done to each other?
These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.
So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?
'Gone Girl is a book you'll be begging other people to read, just so you can discuss it with them' Mail on Sunday
Phoenix
Fiction
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Nick Dunne
the day of
When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of
it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the
head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it.
Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had what the
Victorians would call finely shaped head. You could imagine the
skull quite easily.
I’d know her head anywhere.
And what’s inside it. I think of that too: her mind. Her brain, all
those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast,
frantic centipedes. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling
her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down
her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question I’ve asked
most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person
who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every
marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are
you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?
My eyes flipped open at exactly six a.m. This was no avian fluttering
of the lashes, no gentle blink toward consciousness. The awakening
was mechanical. A spooky ventriloquist- dummy click of the lids:
The world is black and then, showtime! 6- 0- 0 the clock said— in my
face, first thing I saw. 6- 0- 0. It felt different. I rarely woke at such a
rounded time. I was a man of jagged risings: 8:43, 11:51, 9:26. My
life was alarmless.
At that exact moment, 6- 0- 0, the sun climbed over the skyline of
oaks, revealing its full summer angry- god self. Its reflection flared
across the river toward our house, a long, blaring finger aimed at me
through our frail bedroom curtains. Accusing: You have been seen.
You will be seen.
I wallowed in bed, which was our New York bed in our new house,
which we still called the new house, even though we’d been back here
for two years. It’s a rented house right along the Mississippi River,
a house that screams Suburban Nouveau Riche, the kind of place
I aspired to as a kid from my split- level, shag- carpet side of town.
The kind of house that is immediately familiar: a generically grand,
unchallenging, new, new, new house that my wife would— and did—
detest.
“Should I remove my soul before I come inside?” Her first line upon
arrival. It had been a compromise: Amy demanded we rent, not buy,
in my little Missouri hometown, in her firm hope that we wouldn’t
be stuck here long. But the only houses for rent were clustered in
this failed development: a miniature ghost town of bank- owned,
recession- busted, price- reduced mansions, a neighborhood that closed
before it ever opened. It was a compromise, but Amy didn’t see it that
way, not in the least. To Amy, it was a punishing whim on my part, a
nasty, selfish twist of the knife. I would drag her, caveman- style, to a
town she had aggressively avoided, and make her live in the kind of
house she used to mock. I suppose it’s not a compromise if only one of
you considers it such, but that was what our compromises tended to
look like. One of us was always angry. Amy, usually.
Do not blame me for this particular grievance, Amy. The Missouri
Grievance. Blame the economy, blame bad luck, blame my parents,
blame your parents, blame the Internet, blame people who use the
Internet. I used to be a writer. I was a writer who wrote about TV
and movies and books. Back when people read things on paper, back
when anyone cared about what I thought. I’d arrived in New York in
the late ’90s, the last gasp of the glory days, although no one knew it
then. New York was packed with writers, real writers, because there
were magazines, real magazines, loads of them. This was back when
the Internet was still some exotic pet kept in the corner of the publishing
world— throw some kibble at it, watch it dance on its little leash,
oh quite cute, it definitely won’t kill us in the night. Think about it: a
time when newly graduated college kids could come to New York and
get paid to write. We had no clue that we were embarking on careers
that would vanish within a decade.
I had a job for eleven years and then I didn’t, it was that fast. All
around the country, magazines began shuttering, succumbing to
a sudden infection brought on by the busted economy. Writers (my
kind of writers: aspiring novelists, ruminative thinkers, people whose
brains don’t work quick enough to blog or link or tweet, basically old,
stubborn blowhards) were through. We were like women’s hat makers
or buggy- whip manufacturers: Our time was done. Three weeks after
I got cut loose, Amy lost her job, such as it was. (Now I can feel Amy
looking over my shoulder, smirking at the time I’ve spent discussing
my career, my misfortune, and dismissing her experience in one sentence.
That, she would tell you, is typical. Just like Nick, she would
say. It was a refrain of hers: Just like Nick to . . . whatever followed,
whatever was just like me, was bad.) Two jobless grown- ups, we spent
weeks wandering around our Brooklyn brownstone in socks and pajamas,
ignoring the future, strewing unopened mail across tables and
sofas, eating ice cream at ten a.m. and taking thick afternoon naps.
Then one day the phone rang. My twin sister was on the other
end. Margo had moved back home after her own New York layoff
a year before— the girl is one step ahead of me in everything, even
shitty luck. Margo, calling from good ole North Carthage, Missouri,
from the house where we grew up, and as I listened to her voice, I
saw her at age ten, with a dark cap of hair and overall shorts, sitting
on our grandparents’ back dock, her body slouched over like an old
pillow, her skinny legs dangling in the water, watching the river fl ow
over fish- white feet, so intently, utterly self- possessed even as a child.
Go’s voice was warm and crinkly even as she gave this cold news:
Our indomitable mother was dying. Our dad was nearly gone— his
(nasty) mind, his (miserable) heart, both murky as he meandered
toward the great gray beyond. But it looked like our mother would
beat him there. About six months, maybe a year, she had. I could tell
that Go had gone to meet with the doctor by herself, taken her studious
notes in her slovenly handwriting, and she was teary as she tried
to decipher what she’d written. Dates and doses.
“Well, fuck, I have no idea what this says, is it a nine? Does that
even make sense?” she said, and I interrupted. Here was a task, a
purpose, held out on my sister’s palm like a plum. I almost cried with
relief.
“I’ll come back, Go. We’ll move back home. You shouldn’t have to
do this all by yourself.”
She didn’t believe me. I could hear her breathing on the other end.
“I’m serious, Go. Why not? There’s nothing here.”
A long exhale. “What about Amy?”
That is what I didn’t take long enough to consider. I simply assumed
I would bundle up my New York wife with her New York interests,
her New York pride, and remove her from her New York parents—
leave the frantic, thrilling futureland of Manhattan behind— and
transplant her to a little town on the river in Missouri, and all would
be fine.
I did not yet understand how foolish, how optimistic, how, yes,
just like Nick I was for thinking this. The misery it would lead to.
“Amy will be fine. Amy . . .” Here was where I should have said,
“Amy loves Mom.” But I couldn’t tell Go that Amy loved our mother,
because after all that time, Amy still barely knew our mother. Their
few meetings had left them both baffled. Amy would dissect the conversations
for days after—“And what did she mean by . . . ,” as if my
mother were some ancient peasant tribeswoman arriving from the
tundra with an armful of raw yak meat and some buttons for bartering,
trying to get something from Amy that wasn’t on offer.
Amy didn’t care to know my family, didn’t want to know my
birthplace, and yet for some reason, I thought moving home would
be a good idea.
My morning breath warmed the pillow, and I changed the subject in
my mind. Today was not a day for second- guessing or regret, it was a
day for doing. Downstairs, I could hear the return of a long- lost sound:
Amy making breakfast. Banging wooden cupboards (rump- thump!),
rattling containers of tin and glass (ding- ring!), shuffling and sorting
a collection of metal pots and iron pans (ruzz-shuzz!). A culinary
orchestra tuning up, clattering vigorously toward the finale, a cake
pan drumrolling along the floor, hitting the wall with a cymballic
crash. Something impressive was being created, probably a crepe,
because crepes are special, and today Amy would want to cook something
special.
It was our five- year anniversary.
I walked barefoot to the edge of the steps and stood listening,
working my toes into the plush wall- to- wall carpet Amy detested on
principle, as I tried to decide whether I was ready to join my wife.
Amy was in the kitchen, oblivious to my hesitation. She was humming
something melancholy and familiar. I strained to make it out— a folk
song? a lullabye?—and then realized it was the theme to M*A*S*H.
Suicide is painless. I went downstairs.
I hovered in the doorway, watching my wife. Her yellow- butter
hair was pulled up, the hank of ponytail swinging cheerful as a jumprope,
and she was sucking distractedly on a burnt fingertip, humming
around it. She hummed to herself because she was an unrivaled
botcher of lyrics. When we were first dating, a Genesis song came on
the radio: “She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah.” And Amy
crooned instead, “She takes my hat and puts it on the top shelf.”
When I asked her why she’d ever think her lyrics were remotely, possibly,
vaguely right, she told me she always thought the woman in the
song truly loved the man because she put his hat on the top shelf. I
knew I liked her then, really liked her, this girl with an explanation
for everything.
There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and
feeling utterly cold.
Amy peered at the crepe sizzling in the pan and licked something
off her wrist. She looked triumphant, wifely. If I took her in my arms,
she would smell like berries and powdered sugar.
When she spied me lurking there in grubby boxers, my hair in full
Heat Miser spike, she leaned against the kitchen counter and said,
“Well, hello, handsome.”
Bile and dread inched up my throat. I thought to myself: Okay, go.
I was very late getting to work. My sister and I had done a foolish
thing when we both moved back home. We had done what we always
talked about doing. We opened a bar. We borrowed money from Amy
to do this, eighty thousand dollars, which was once nothing to Amy
but by then was almost everything. I swore I would pay her back,
with interest. I would not be a man who borrowed from his wife— I
could feel my dad twisting his lips at the very idea. Well, there are all
kinds of men, his most damning phrase, the second half left unsaid,
and you are the wrong kind.
But truly, it was a practical decision, a smart business move. Amy
and I both needed new careers; this would be mine. She would pick
one someday, or not, but in the meantime, here was an income, made
possible by the last of Amy’s trust fund. Like the McMansion I rented,
the bar featured symbolically in my childhood memories— a place
where only grown- ups go, and do whatever grown- ups do. Maybe
that’s why I was so insistent on buying it after being stripped of my
livelihood. It’s a reminder that I am, after all, an adult, a grown man,
a useful human being, even though I lost the career that made me
all these things. I won’t make that mistake again: The once plentiful
herds of magazine writers would continue to be culled— by the
Internet, by the recession, by the American public, who would rather
watch TV or play video games or electronically inform friends that,
like, rain sucks! But there’s no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day
in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink.
Our bar is a corner bar with a haphazard, patchwork aesthetic. Its
best feature is a massive Victorian back bar, dragon heads and angel
faces emerging from the oak— an extravagant work of wood in these
shitty plastic days. The remainder of the bar is, in fact, shitty, a showcase
of the shabbiest design offerings of every decade: an Eisenhowerera
linoleum floor, the edges turned up like burnt toast; dubious
wood- paneled walls straight from a ’70s home- porn video; halogen
floor lamps, an accidental tribute to my 1990s dorm room. The ultimate
effect is strangely homey— it looks less like a bar than someone’s
benignly neglected fixer- upper. And jovial: We share a parking
lot with the local bowling alley, and when our door swings wide, the
clatter of strikes applauds the customer’s entrance.
We named the bar The Bar. “People will think we’re ironic instead
of creatively bankrupt,” my sister reasoned.
Yes, we thought we were being clever New Yorkers— that the
name was a joke no one else would really get, not get like we did.
Not meta- get. We pictured the locals scrunching their noses: Why’d
you name it The Bar? But our first customer, a gray- haired woman in
bifocals and a pink jogging suit, said, “I like the name. Like in Breakfast
at Tiffany’s and Audrey Hepburn’s cat was named Cat.”
We felt much less superior after that, which was a good thing.
I pulled into the parking lot. I waited until a strike erupted from
the bowling alley— thank you, thank you, friends— then stepped
out of the car. I admired the surroundings, still not bored with the
broken- in view: the squatty blond- brick post office across the street
(now closed on Saturdays), the unassuming beige office building just
down the way (now closed, period). The town wasn’t prosperous, not
anymore, not by a long shot. Hell, it wasn’t even original, being one
of two Carthage, Missouris— ours is technically North Carthage,
which makes it sound like a twin city, although it’s hundreds of miles
from the other and the lesser of the two: a quaint little 1950s town
that bloated itself into a basic midsize suburb and dubbed it progress.
Still, it was where my mom grew up and where she raised me and Go,
so it had some history. Mine, at least.
As I walked toward the bar across the concrete- and- weed parking
lot, I looked straight down the road and saw the river. That’s what
I’ve always loved about our town: We aren’t built on some safe bluff
overlooking the Mississippi— we are on the Mississippi. I could walk
down the road and step right into the sucker, an easy three- foot drop,
and be on my way to Tennessee. Every building downtown bears
hand- drawn lines from where the river hit during the Flood of ’61,’75,
’84, ’93, ’07, ’08, ’11. And so on.
The river wasn’t swollen now, but it was running urgently, in strong
ropy currents. Moving apace with the river was a long single- fi le line
of men, eyes aimed at their feet, shoulders tense, walking steadfastly
nowhere. As I watched them, one suddenly looked up at me, his face
in shadow, an oval blackness. I turned away.
I felt an immediate, intense need to get inside. By the time I’d gone
twenty feet, my neck bubbled with sweat. The sun was still an angry
eye in the sky. You have been seen.
My gut twisted, and I moved quicker. I needed a drink.
Product details
- ASIN : B007ZXK08C
- Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson (24 May 2012)
- Language : English
- File size : 1.7 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 412 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 6,329 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 25 in Movie Tie-In Fiction
- 36 in Film & Television Tie-In
- 201 in Romantic Suspense (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Gillian Flynn was the chief TV critic for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and now writes full-time. Her first novel SHARP OBJECTS was the winner of two CWA DAGGERS and was shortlisted for the GOLD DAGGER. Her latest novel, GONE GIRL, is a massive No.1 bestseller. The film adaptation of GONE GIRL, directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, won the Hollywood Film Award 2014.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book compelling and well-written, with a complex writing style that keeps them turning pages until midnight. The plot receives mixed reactions - while some praise its unique storyline and first half's tension-building, others find the ending contrived. Customers disagree on the character development, with some appreciating the exceptional descriptions while others find the characters unlikable. The book's pace is also debated, with some enjoying the quick start while others find it slow going.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book compelling and entertaining, with one describing it as a great page turner.
"...It was entertaining on so many levels. Firstly the initial 'hook' early on in the story- being the disappearance of Amy...." Read more
"...The writing has neither that quality, nor depth. It is, however, an engaging read." Read more
"...It is one of the great books that manages in our reaction to the characters, to reveal something of who we are. This was for me the absolute quality...." Read more
"...Superbly-constructed and flawlessly-executed, Gone Girl grips from the start with its central mystery and never lets up...." Read more
Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as crisp, engaging, and tightly constructed, with one customer noting its dense-textured prose.
"...and her style of writing really struck me as accessible without being simplistic. She has honed that in this novel too...." Read more
"...However, they have never loved the real Amy. Nick is a handsome, articulate and engaging character but he cannot love Amy...." Read more
"...I think Gone Girl is well-written, original and clever. I was impressed by the portrayal of US contemporary life...." Read more
"...It is a smart book very well put together. It is a long book and the first half was often a struggle, over 200 pages excessively chic-lit...." Read more
Customers describe this book as a page-turner that keeps them reading until midnight.
"...What Gone Girl definitely did for me was keep me turning the pages...." Read more
"...Nevertheless a well written novel and yes - a page turner." Read more
"...I quickly realised what all the fuss was about. Gone Girl is a real page-turner which was very hard to put down; an intriguing story of a missing..." Read more
"...And it sure did! It was an real page-turner, with twists and turns every few pages and just impossible to put down!..." Read more
Customers have mixed reactions to the book's twists and turns, with some praising its unique plotline and good flow, while others find the ending contrived.
"...This was fascinating. The dramatic plot twist instantly astounded me. Jaw dropping. This was so cleverly written...." Read more
"...It is incredibly cleverly done and gripping, and I especially liked how one entry led neatly into the following one, not always in subject matter..." Read more
"...I say 'moderate' because the twists are fairly predictable. I have read reviews which express surprise that the book was not a Booker candidate...." Read more
"...For me this book is not a crime thriller. It is a mystery but it is more about a breakdown of a marriage and a clash of the genders than anything..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book, with some praising the exceptionally detailed descriptions while others find the characters unlikable and untrustworthy.
"...Amy and Nick are certainly convincing characters and the reader may choose to suspend disbelief in the plot in order to enter their fictional world...." Read more
"...Some of the characters are not fully developed which is a shame and the proposed movie will probably fill that out." Read more
"...Her characters' voices are distinctive, and referential to genre conventions as well as popular cultural in a way which lends Gone Girl a postmodern..." Read more
"...manipulation, marital breakdown, twists and turns and perfectly crafted toxic characters that makes you feel one moment Nick was the `villain' to..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding the start amazing while others describe it as rather slow going.
"...I just felt the first part of the book was quite slow and I just didn't get the end, I was pretty disappointed...." Read more
"...Read this at a brisk pace - twoish days - and relished in the twists and turns which although not fully unexpected offered a pleasant execution and..." Read more
"...to that point there had been a number of times when I found the going rather slow -- something I had not expected, given the acclaim it has received..." Read more
"...For me it definitely picked up at a great pace after we find out what really happened to Amy and I couldn't wait to turn the page to find out what..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it tense and appreciating the shocks throughout, while others find it disturbing and unsympathetic.
"...Ultimately though, it becomes impossible to maintain this facade forever, and finally your true self is revealed...." Read more
"...narration allows us to be Nick and to see through his eyes and hear through his ears, this lets the reader get to know him and to form an opinion of..." Read more
"...fizzles out. It's a bit like lighting a firework which doesn't go bang - and your face drops from a smile to a flat expression as a result...." Read more
"...-way twist, the book went rapidly downhill and became, in parts, frankly silly. I actually hated the ended...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about getting into the book, with some finding the premise simple and the first part fascinating, while others describe it as tedious and difficult to start.
"...It is a long book and the first half was often a struggle, over 200 pages excessively chic-lit. I found myself speed reading often...." Read more
"...She has honed that in this novel too. The story doesn't need going over - that's what the synopsis is for...." Read more
"...are deeply flawed characters and, for the most of the book, are very hard to like: if you're the sort of reader who struggles to care about the..." Read more
"...The slam dunk of part 2 was less satisfying, and I wasn't convinced by the volte-face nor the ending...." Read more
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2015The story revolves around a dysfunctional married couple living in New York. Nick is a journalist in his mid 30s and Amy is a magazine quiz writer, in her late 30s.
Early on, Nick loses his job due to cut backs and shortly after Amy is let go from her company.
For a while the pair live like a pair of students. The apartment becomes messy, they don't bother getting dressed in the day, they live on convenience food and generally have no structure to their days.
Financial support comes from Amy's trust fund.
Nick's mother is diagnosed with cancer. She lives in Missouri and he believes it would be best for them to move there so he can care for her as there is nothing keeping either of them in New York.
They move into Nick's hometown only to find the neighbourhood has becoming extremely rundown, with boarded up houses, shut down shops and the general feeling that the town in is in the grip of a recession. A far cry from their expensive New York apartment.
Nick wants to open up his own bar to generate some income, but he needs $8000 to do so. Amy gives it to him.
It is the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. In the morning Nick goes out leaving Amy at home. He returns to the house to find the front door wide open. Shouting Amy's name, he receives no response. On entering the living room he sees a scene of destruction. Various items have been smashed, books strewn around and the ottoman overturned.
He rushes upstairs and, there, in the bedroom is Amy's dress, spread on the ironing board with the iron, steaming next to it. There's no sign of blood but clearly some physical altercation has occurred and Amy has vanished into thin air.
From this part of the novel the story flicks between current day events and Amy's diary entries. Amy's diary makes for very intriguing reading. She chronicles the events from the very moment that she met Nick, how wonderfully in love they first were, after a couple of years of marriage Nick's behaviour gradually turns negative towards her and how it escalates to the point she's actually fearing for her life. She encourages you to believe that Nick is not the original good guy she married and poor little rich girl Amy has been lead up the garden path and is now in dire straits.
Between the diary entries, current events are underway. Nick has called the police. To begin with the police are fairly open to Nick in telling him that under these circumstances the first suspect is always the husband. If Nick can answer some preliminary questions, just to rule him out, then they can begin their investigation. Nick accepts this as he has nothing to hide, however there is one particular time frame that Nick's whereabouts cannot be corroborated (the hour from leaving Amy in their house, on the morning of her disappearance, until returning to find the front door open. He states he was sat at the beach drinking coffee...) On Nick's questioning the police also notice that Nick's attitude to his wife's disappearance is very unemotional and distant. Nick remains like this even in the glare of the media and news... There are also a few other seemingly inconsequential police questions that Nick evades answering, which strikes the reader as odd.
The police inspect the crime scene in the living room on the premise that a struggle has taken place. It's not long that due to the manner in which items have been broken, and others, that should have been disturbed remain undamaged. Plus the way the furniture has been left, the police determine that this has been staged...
The mystery mounts as small things begin to appear within the investigation, that, as far as the police are concerned, leave a big question mark over Nick's head. The day traces of Amy's blood are found on the kitchen floor, leave Nick realising he's in big trouble, due to the fact that the police are still viewing him as the number one suspect. He hires a lawyer.
Then half way through the novel comes the MASSIVE plot twist!! I can't reveal any of this otherwise it would ruin an up to now thoroughly gripping read. I think I can say, without spoiling too much, is, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' doesn't even BEGIN to describe poor, pitiful, unfortunate Amy...
I found this to be an absolutely excellent read. Had I not had to go to bed I would have read this in one sitting.
It was entertaining on so many levels.
Firstly the initial 'hook' early on in the story- being the disappearance of Amy. How could she just vanish into thin air with nobody hearing or seeing anything?
Nick's emotional detachment to Amy's disappearance and his evasiveness of certain police questions. Has Nick REALLY got nothing to hide..?
Amy allowing us an insight into the dynamics of their marriage through her diary entries.
The tension of Nick gradually becoming implicated and branded as public enemy number one.
In the second half of the novel I thought it raised some important subjects on the matter of attracting and maintaining your life partner. The author explains how some of us will put on a 'front' in a bid to appeal to a prospective partner because they know or think this will make them more preferable above others. Ultimately though, it becomes impossible to maintain this facade forever, and finally your true self is revealed. But what do you do when you finally realise that your partner despises the REAL you?! And the undisputable fact that some of us are unlucky enough to marry the person we didn't initially fall for. This was fascinating.
The dramatic plot twist instantly astounded me. Jaw dropping. This was so cleverly written. The fact that the author could write the second half with such calculated precision, covering all bases, I found slightly unnerving...It made me wonder if something traumatic has happened to the author in her life in order for her to be able to devise a plot as disturbing as this. I'm not joking, this is serious stuff...
I'd recommend this to anyone who loves an intense, dark, riveting, page turner of a thriller.
Brilliant.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2013I like Gillian Flynn's first book (Sharp Objects) and her style of writing really struck me as accessible without being simplistic. She has honed that in this novel too.
The story doesn't need going over - that's what the synopsis is for. The first two thirds of the book are a fascinating analysis of lots of different relationships, in the marriage, in the child-parent sense and the brother-sister sense. It is incredibly cleverly done and gripping, and I especially liked how one entry led neatly into the following one, not always in subject matter but in the use of similar or matching words which I felt really added flow to the reading and contributed to the inability to put it down.
There were some problems with it however - the ending is bizarre and not becoming of the rest of the story. It almost peters out in fact and while there was no point in the build up when I thought "this has now got silly" it was all contained in those last few pages. Nonetheless, and I stress this, the ending didn't ruin the remainder of the book at all and that in itself is probably an indication of how out of place it seems.
Am sure (and the acknowledgements would suggest) that research was not lacking in this book but I also find the way that the police behaved as the second part comes to and end and the third part of the story is a little unbelievable. And the behaviour and character of Desi (and his mother) was a little contrived in order to get the necessary twist in. It's not being overly generous to say that it's probably because so little time could be devoted to Desi (due to the narrative style adopted) and the book couldn't afford a third voice or a further distraction from the plot; and equally some of the antics of people in Amy's formative years (especially her friend, whose name I have forgotten) were more like "oh so THAT's why you told me that earlier" rather than being a natural flow.... but again it's hard to flesh out characters when the style of narration is so first person.
Overall, don't be put off from reading this - watching the way the relationships constantly change is fascinating and easy to see reflected in my own life, though not to that extreme. Some of the characters are not fully developed which is a shame and the proposed movie will probably fill that out.
Top reviews from other countries
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NoraReviewed in Spain on 12 July 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecta lectura en inglés para un nivel B2 ó más
Me encanta, vi la película y quería el libro. Lo compre en inglés por que quería practicar y me gusta este tipo de literatura drama, misterio y suspense. A mí personalmente me costo por que tengo un nivel muy bajo. pero si tienes un B2 ó mas mejor.
- Kathy StewartReviewed in Australia on 1 May 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing and brilliantly written book
My sister recommended I read this book and it didn’t disappoint. I’d seen the movie so I knew what to expect but I still found the book intriguing. Gillian Flynn is a brilliant writer and each character is so well developed that it’s a pleasure to read. The plot takes a lot of twists and turns and will keep you guessing until the surprising conclusion. I know some people haven’t liked the ending but I found it brilliant. I thought the movie was one of the best I’ve ever seen and I think the book ranks right up there too. I look forward to reading more by this author.
- Julia LidströmReviewed in Sweden on 30 April 2025
3.0 out of 5 stars Used book
Arrived damaged and clearly used, package was whole and on time
- Nickolas X. P. SharpsReviewed in the United States on 10 August 2012
5.0 out of 5 stars That's How You Do It
I don't often read outside of my comfort zone. I love science fiction and I love fantasy and not much else holds my interest. Every once and a while though I'll take a risk and venture outside my safety bubble. GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn was recommended to me with infectious enthusiasm. It wasn't my usual cup of tea but the premise was perplexing and so I decided to give it a shot. WOW, I am so glad I did not let this one pass me by.
On the morning of Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary she goes missing. As the investigation gets rolling evidence leads the police and the public to suspect the obvious: it's always the husband. There is more to the story than Nick Dunne will let on but does that necessarily mean he is to blame for the disappearance of his wife?
It's always the husband. Right? Maybe not...GONE GIRL is the best sort of book. This is the sort of novel that will challenge your preconceived notions. This is the sort of novel that will absorb you fully and not let you go until you flip the final page. Even then you are bound to continue mulling it over in your head. This is the sort of book that dominates your conscious, whether you're at work or school or whatever it is you people do. I don't take time to reflect on books as I read them. I just don't have the luxury. With GONE GIRL I was pausing every fifty pages or so to contemplate what it was that I had read. And even then I finished it in a few sittings. I got this book on a Tuesday and had finished it by Thursday night. At 400 pages and given the concerns of daily life that is no small feat.
So what makes GONE GIRL such an addictive book? For starters it is incredibly well written. From start to finish, GONE GIRL is a nearly flawless psychological thriller. The book is told from two perspectives, Nick and Amy's. Nick's POV picks up the day Amy goes missing and continues on with the investigation. Amy's POV is past-tense, told in the form of diary entries leading up to the disappearance. For the entirety of the novel Nick maintains his innocence, but he also confesses to a number of indiscretions. The entries from Amy's diary paint a very different picture of Nick, as well as a very different picture of Amy. Readers will experience the two falling in and out of love, the highs and lows of the marriage, from two perspectives that don't quite match up.
The characters of Nick and Amy are real people. At least that's how it feels. Flynn crafts remarkably authentic characters and utterly believable relationships. I developed genuine feelings for both leads, feelings that morphed and grew over the course of the novel. It's impossible not to care about these people. That doesn't mean they are necessarily likable. I've seen some complaints that they aren't "likable enough." Well yeah, that's true in a sense, because they are placed under a high intensity microscope. The deeper you look into someone the less you will find to like. But it goes both ways. The deeper you look into someone the more you can find to admire. I had anxiety over finishing the novel because I cared that much about these characters.
The ancillary characters are also well drawn. It takes no effort at all to picture these people and their motivations and their relationships. There is no shortage of suspects, even though all of the evidence seems to be pointing in one direction. It is enough to make you wonder how thoroughly the media influences perception. Everyone always assumes the husband is to blame but that's what we have been conditioned to believe.
GONE GIRL is a psychological thriller of the highest order. Hitchcock style. The suspense is almost unbearable. Horror movie directors need to take some freaking notes. This is how you do it. GONE GIRL is too involved for a movie but I would love to see it picked up and developed as a television mini-series. Even when I expected one twist I was still floored when my revelation came true. It's just that good. There is some very dark, very twisted stuff here but none of it is beyond the realm of belief. And that's what makes it so creepy. This could happen to you. It could happen to me. I really, really hope this doesn't happen to me. It just goes to show you, sometimes the most disturbing thing of all is not knowing someone half so well as you think.
Recommended Age: 17+
Language: Plenty.
Violence: Uh, wow I guess there really isn't any violence. But it is discussed.
Sex: No real sex here either, but there is discussion of sex. \
Nick Sharps
Elitist Book Reviews
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Karyna HarleikReviewed in Mexico on 10 November 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Me encantó!
Amo completamente la película que se adaptó de esta novela y desde hace años he querido leerla. Es increíble la calidad de esta historia! De mis mejores lecturas este año, además de que llegó perfecto el libro y súper rápido.