Review: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

On her fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne goes missing. A neighbor calls her husband Nick, to report the front door wide open and the cat out on the lawn. Nick rushes home from work, and inside the house he finds signs of a struggle. Police and detectives arrive and begin their investigation by questioning Nick. This seemed like a perfectly natural way to gather the first facts, but then Nick, as narrator, something that sent chills down my spine: “It was my fifth lie to the police. I was just starting.”

Why did he lie? Which of his statements were true, and which false? Did Nick have a role in Amy’s disappearance? This is just the beginning of an intense, fast-paced thriller. Nick and Amy tell their story in alternating chapters. Amy’s chapters are diary excerpts beginning several years earlier, when she first met Nick. She describes their romance, their marriage, and the circumstances that caused them to move from New York City to Nick’s hometown in Missouri. Meanwhile, Nick’s chapters describe the investigation and more recent events in his life with Amy. By the time the two narratives converge, the reader has a complete picture of their marriage. Or do they?

Whenever I thought I was onto something important about Amy’s disappearance, Gillian Flynn would take the plot in a dramatically new direction. Previous facts were shown to be fiction. Mysterious clues were explained, and seemingly normal events suddenly appeared suspicious. There’s not much that can be said about Gone Girl without revealing critical plot details. Suffice to say this story of a troubled marriage, and the psychological drama between the couple, is a page-turner that will keep you guessing from start to finish.