Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister Margo at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was left in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
Employing her trademark razor-sharp writing and assured psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.



People, when this book comes out in June, you need to run out and get a copy. It is one thrilling, compulsive read!

I’ve said it time and time again, I love an unreliable narrator, and this book has not one, but two of them: Nick and Amy, the seemingly perfect married couple. I’ll be very careful what I write, since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but the author does such a clever job of manipulating the reader’s sympathies. She makes us feel what she wants us to feel when she wants us to feel it and for the exact character for which she wants us to feel it. The plot is superbly crafted, the kind that makes your jaw drop as you read, wondering how someone can write something with such skill. The two protagonists steal the show, though. Which, of course, is the point. Throughout the novel we shift so many times from liking them to hating them and vice versa that it makes it difficult to know who to root for. Nick’s evolution from a naive, spoiled young man into the man he is at the end is worth the whole book. And Amy…Amy is amazing.

I highly, highly recommend this novel. One of the best I’ve read this year.