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Gone Girl: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Gillian Flynn
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10,828 customer reviews)

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Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
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Book Description

Marriage can be a real killer. 
   One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. 
   On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl 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 in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
   With her razor-sharp writing and trademark 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.



Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2012: On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick’s wife Amy disappears. There are signs of struggle in the house, and Nick quickly becomes the prime suspect. It doesn’t help that Nick hasn’t been completely honest with the police, and, as Amy’s case drags out for weeks, more and more vilifying evidence appears against him--but Nick maintains his innocence. Alternating points of view between Nick and Amy, Gillian Flynn creates an untrustworthy world that changes from chapter to chapter. Calling Gone Girl a psychological thriller is an understatement. As revelation after revelation unfolds, it becomes clear that the truth does not exist in the middle of Nick and Amy’s points of view; it is far darker, more twisted, and creepier than you can imagine. Gone Girl is masterfully plotted, and the suspense doesn’t waver for a single page. It’s one of those books you will feel the need to discuss as soon as you finish it, because the ending doesn’t just come--it punches you in the gut. --Caley Anderson

From Author Gillian Flynn

You might say I specialize in difficult characters. Damaged, disturbed, or downright nasty. Personally, I love each and every one of the misfits, losers, and outcasts in my three novels. My supporting characters are meth tweakers, truck-stop strippers, backwoods grifters ...

But it's my narrators who are the real challenge.

In Sharp Objects, Camille Preaker is a mediocre journalist fresh from a stay at a psychiatric hospital. She's an alcoholic. She's got impulse issues. She's also incredibly lonely. Her best friend is her boss. When she returns to her hometown to investigate a child murder, she parks down the street from her mother's house "so as to seem less obtrusive." She has no sense of whom to trust, and this leads to disaster.

Camille is cut off from the world but would rather not be. In Dark Places, narrator Libby Day is aggressively lonely. She cultivates her isolation. She lives off a trust fund established for her as a child when her family was massacred; she isn't particularly grateful for it. She's a liar, a manipulator, a kleptomaniac. "I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ," she warns. "Draw a picture of my soul and it'd be a scribble with fangs." If Camille is overly grateful when people want to befriend her, Libby's first instinct is to kick them in their shins.

In those first two novels, I explored the geography of loneliness--and the devastation it can lead to. With Gone Girl, I wanted to go the opposite direction: what happens when two people intertwine their lives completely.I wanted to explore the geography of intimacy--and the devastation it can lead to. Marriage gone toxic.

Gone Girl opens on the occasion of Amy and Nick Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. (How romantic.) Amy disappears under very disturbing circumstances. (Less romantic.) Nick and Amy Dunne were the golden couple when they first began their courtship. Soul mates. They could complete each other's sentences, guess each other's reactions. They could push each other's buttons. They are smart, charming, gorgeous, and also narcissistic, selfish, and cruel.

They complete each other--in a very dangerous way.

Review

"Ice-pick-sharp... Spectacularly sneaky... Impressively cagey... "Gone Girl" is Ms. Flynn's dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they're hard to part with -- even if, as in Amy's case, they are already departed. And if you have any doubts about whether Ms. Flynn measures up to Patricia Highsmith's level of discreet malice, go back and look at the small details. Whatever you raced past on a first reading will look completely different the second time around." --Janet Maslin, "New York Times
""An ingenious and viperish thriller... It's going to make Gillian Flynn a star... The first half of "Gone Girl" is a nimble, caustic riff on our Nancy Grace culture and the way in which ''The butler did it'' has morphed into ''The husband did it.'' The second half is the real stunner, though. Now I really am going to shut up before I spoil what instantly shifts into a great, breathless read. Even as "Gone Girl" grows truly twisted and wild, it says smart things about how tenuous power relations are between men and women, and how often couples are at the mercy of forces beyond their control. As if that weren't enough, Flynn has created a genuinely creepy villain you don't see coming. People love to talk about the banality of evil. You're about to meet a maniac you could fall in love with. A" "--"Jeff Giles, "Entertainment Weekly
"
"An irresistible summer thriller with a twisting plot worthy of Alfred Hitchcock. Burrowing deep into the murkiest corners of the human psyche, this delectable summer read will give you the creeps and keep you on edge until the last page." "--People" (four stars)
"[A] thoroughbred thriller about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships. "Gone Girl" begins as a whodunit, but by the end it will have you wondering whether there's any such thing as a who at all." "--"Lev Grossman, "Time"

Product Details

  • File Size: 1472 KB
  • Print Length: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Crown (June 5, 2012)
  • Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B006LSZECO
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

This book was very well written and kept my interest with its great twists and turns. ROBIN DIETRICH  |  2,103 reviewers made a similar statement
I could not put down this book once I started reading. Lauren Eleanor Merrill  |  1,459 reviewers made a similar statement
I really wanted to like this book, but the ending was just terrible! K. Brooks  |  937 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1,678 of 1,777 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Fiendishly clever mystery novel May 8, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
In the first few pages of Gillian Flynn's new novel Gone Girl, I was thinking, "This is it -- one of those rare novels that's unique and totally engrossing, cleverly plotted so that each new development has me astounded and eager to find out what happens next." Then the story continued as Midwestern husband Nick began to deal with his wife Amy's sudden disappearance and some gradually revealed details that might cast doubt on his own innocence in the matter. During that time, the book dropped down from the level of extraordinary to merely somewhat intriguing. However, once I reached Part Two of Gone Girl ("Boy Meets Girl"), it was like Ms Flynn kicked it up a notch, and the book became amazing again. Without giving any spoilers, Part Two unveils some major plot twists that cast Amy's status in an entirely new light. From that point on, the story moves along in powder keg fashion: the fuse has been lit, and it's only a question of how long 'til the explosion, and how much damage will be done when it happens. Flynn has a distinctive writing style that really involved me in what was going on with her two main characters. I had previously purchased but not yet read her Sharp Objects (after several recommendations). Now I will have to read it, and also get her first book, Dark Places. Only one warning, though: Gone Girl contains a fair amount of foul language. This was not a problem for me, but it might be for some readers.
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469 of 520 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars An Irresistible Slow Burn April 8, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Marguerite Yourcenar wrote long ago that "the mask, given time, comes to be the face itself." This can work for good or bad, but the more hideous the secrets, the more carefully that mask is constructed. So what if you discovered after five years of marriage that you'd only seen the mask, and never the real face of your spouse? Once those dark truths were revealed, could you stay married to that person?

Knowledge is power, and never more so than in an intimate relationship.
What if your spouse knew you so well that they could anticipate your behavior in any circumstance, and thereby manipulate you without your realizing it?

Gillian Flynn takes the common marital concerns about money, in-laws, and parenthood, and turns them into toxic waste in the case of Nick and Amy Dunne. Amy is revealed through her diaries, and Nick narrates his experiences as he follows the clues in the anniversary treasure hunt laid out by his wife before she disappeared. Did Nick kill Amy? A lot of people think so, but her body hasn't been found. Is Amy still alive? What was lurking beneath the surface of their marriage?

GONE GIRL is a thriller, but it's a slow burn. Flynn strings you along. She doles out just enough information to make you think you've figured things out before she hits you with another "GOTCHA!" revelation that changes everything. And she saves the biggest gotcha of all for the end, which is shocking in its subtlety. The way the story ends puts the final seal on what a truly sick relationship Nick and Amy had.
The path is twisted, disturbing, and sometimes horrifying. It's also irresistible.
Sensitive readers should proceed with caution. The book does contain coarse language as well as some violence and sexual content.
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665 of 763 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars When a Perfect Marriage Turns Sour June 6, 2012
Format:Hardcover
A beautiful woman is snared by a young man who can't believe his good fortune. She is well off and adores him. What can be better? Both are writers living in New York but they lose their jobs. In addition, the woman's parents become financially bereft and ask their daughter to borrow her money. Poor, they use the last of her money to buy a bar in his hometown which is run by her husband and his twin sister.

Amy Elliott Dunne has another side to her personality that Nick Dunne is about to discover as the ideal marriage that he thought he had begins to fall apart. When Amy disappears Nick is believed to be the cause of her disappearance.

Did he murder his beloved wife? Nick knows he didn't but all signs point to that conclusion. The police believe he is responsible for her absence. Her parents, who stand by him in the beginning, arrive at the same belief. The public and the media are likewise convinced. He wonders if even his twin sister believes it as well. Before the reader discovers the truth, the reader becomes wrapped up in endless detail.

This is a thriller that does keep one turning the pages but it roars to a pallid conclusion. I liked it but thought that someone should have spent more time editing as details are presented again and again. I know many others will like this read but I was disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed in the ending
I really liked this book until the last few chapters. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll only say that I thought what happened was very implausible. Read more
Published 41 minutes ago by L. Davidson
1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Book Ever
I wish I wouldn't have wasted my time reading this book. The ending is absolutely terrible, and I feel as if the author simply just gave up. Read more
Published 1 hour ago by Claire
2.0 out of 5 stars Gone girl
I was so disappointed with the ending. I am a slow reader any way, so the end just sucked. The whole time I was reading I thought what a great movie it would be. Read more
Published 1 hour ago by Kellie A Tanous
2.0 out of 5 stars Really need to learn their relationship leassons
It should be funny to me, but it is so "real life" for so many couples that it hurts my heart.
Published 3 hours ago by M. Sears
4.0 out of 5 stars Genuinely intriguing
Well written book. Not the type of book I would usually read but this was intriguing. The book had a lot of twists which made me not want to put it down. Read more
Published 4 hours ago by Carolyn
1.0 out of 5 stars Borrowing and trivial
This was selected by my book discussion group. I would never have finished it, except for that obligation. I felt slimy when I had finished it. Ugh! It is ugly and badly written. Read more
Published 5 hours ago by owleyes
5.0 out of 5 stars great read
loved the book can't wait till the movie comes out. I wanted something bad to happen at the end which I won't say so I don't ruin it for the rest of the people reading it.
Published 5 hours ago by Sharon Hammer
2.0 out of 5 stars Review of Gone Girl
Tremendous hype. You keep reading thinking it is of the same caliber as Memento.
Yes, there will be those that say how interesting that the book reads from different... Read more
Published 6 hours ago by Linda Chase
3.0 out of 5 stars Gone Girl
The book was interesting and held my attention. I just disliked the ending. Without giving away some of the 'happenings' I can't go into detail. Read more
Published 7 hours ago by Stabledgurly
4.0 out of 5 stars roller coaster of a read!
If you like mystery and twists, this is a good book for you. Well written for the most part, but does struggle a bit to hold all things together towards the climactic conclusion.
Published 7 hours ago by J. Barulich
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Gone Girl
SPOILERS!!! MAJOR SPOILERS!!

I think the book ended the way that it had to. I have considered many different ways that it could have ended, and I think that by far this was the most fitting based on the great characters created in the book. Amy had to come back, she was too much of a narcissist... Read more
Jul 5, 2012 by KCronan1 |  See all 59 posts
Spoiler
I think the baby's used as a tool of their continuing manipulations of each other.
Sep 26, 2012 by AriesPA |  See all 10 posts
suggestions for a good thriller Be the first to reply
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