Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


By now (August of 2013) the hype around this book has reached such lunatic heights that you can't read it with a completely open mind. But I think I came pretty close, knowing nothing whatsoever about the plot or twists, only aware of its popularity and my various friends' reactions to the end (ranging from "standing ovation" to "rage").

While probably needing no introduction, Gone Girl is a chilly thriller that centers around a wife's disappearance on her fifth anniversary and the twisting, turning weeks and months that follow. It's a bit mystery, a bit thriller, and a lot psychological horror.

Way darker and much more dismal than I anticipated, it's still a page-turner that very much keeps you guessing, even as each specific section goes on a bit too long -- especially the first section, which I would argue ultimately reached the level of "plodding." I understand the device of establishing a straightforward narrative before twisting it, but the establishment went on too long and was actually too straightforward. Obviously the twists and turns (when they came) were great, but the first section was almost a dull standalone thriller unto itself. And you never want to use the words "plodding" or "boring" to describe even a section (or a page!) of your breathless summer thriller.

Overall, it's not the kind of book that's particularly up my alley -- if I'm going to read a fun summery book I'm probably looking for more fun & crackle & sparkle (think Elmore Leonard) than the slow, dreary closing of a heinous vise. Less horror, more thrill. I'm ideally looking for: one car chase, maybe one gun fight, and three decent one-liners. Probably a tiny bit of triumph even in defeat. This felt more like an awful, yet compelling, CNN special on the most toxic, irredeemable people of all time. I can't blame Gone Girl for not being an Elmore Leonard book, I just happen to prefer reading a breezier kind of summer read.

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