Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Reviewed by Meygan Cox

Nick and Amy Dunne appear to have the perfect marriage. Both are writers living in New York City, and Amy has quite the trust fund set back for her and Nick’s future. However, their perfect marriage begins to crumble when they both lose their jobs, Amy gives most of her savings to keep her parents from going bankrupt, and Nick is asked to move back to his home state Missouri so he can take care of his ill mother. I believe anyone would agree that all of these reasons would take a toll on almost any marriage. Nick and Amy begin to argue a lot, using both words and silence to state their case, and although they are both miserable, neither one of them wants to make the first step to getting a divorce.

On their five year wedding anniversary, Nick receives a phone call from his neighbor telling him that Nick’s front door is wide open. Nick finds this unusual, so he goes home. There he finds messed up furniture and broken glass—the indication of a struggle. Nick calls the police and the police file a missing person report. Where has Amy Dunne gone? 

I couldn’t set this book down without feeling I was betraying the author. I just knew that the story would be more engrossing, more enticing with each chapter I read. I read this book before I went to bed, on my lunch breaks, and every other second of time I was given to spare. I found myself waking up thinking about the book. Where DID Amy go? Who took her? Did Nick kill her? They HAD been arguing right before she disappeared… 

The last few chapters were mind blowing. I finished Gone Girl a couple of days ago and I am still thinking about what I read. To me, that is what makes a good book a good book—you think about the story long after reading it.  I craved more Gone Girl and I knew that I just had to see the movie.

With a movie adaptation, you never know what to expect. Will the writers of the movie stick to the novel? Will the movie be a completely different story and the only thing in common is the title? I was nervous. I didn’t want to be disappointed. I am happy to say that although there were a few changes in the movie, most of the changes was minor. The ending was changed just a bit, and I found the movie ending less thrilling.  Still, the people I was with hadn’t read Gone Girl and they liked the ending, even though they found it confusing. (I had to explain a part to them because the movie didn’t elaborate on a certain point as much as the book did, causing it to be easily missed in the movie.) The actors and actresses were cast to a tee. I was a bit surprised at first to find that Ben Affleck would be playing Nick (I’m not exactly his biggest fan), but he did a great job. I sympathized with movie Nick more than I did book Nick, I will say that, but Ben did a good job nonetheless. 

The ending of the book provokes more questions, but I believe it answers more questions than the movie did. My husband, who does read sometimes but said no thanks to reading Gone Girl told me that he wished he had read the novel before seeing the movie. You are truly missing out if you don’t read the book before you see the movie. If you see the movie without reading Gone Girl, well, I’m not sure if you will truly understand Nick and Amy Dunne.

 There are already rumors floating around that there will be a Gone Girl 2. What do you all think?