{"id":9676,"date":"2012-11-26T13:50:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T03:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=9676"},"modified":"2014-04-26T17:46:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-26T07:46:35","slug":"gone-girl-by-gillian-flynn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=9676","title":{"rendered":"Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy disappears and their home shows signs of a violent struggle.\u00a0 There are traces of blood but no body is discovered.\u00a0 What happened?\u00a0 Who killed Amy?\u00a0 Is she even dead?\u00a0 Just what is going on here?<\/p>\n

Gone Girl<\/em> is the third novel from former Entertainment Weekly writer Gillian Flynn.\u00a0 It is an entertainingly twisted thriller that is told from the perspective of both Nick and Amy.\u00a0 The chapters in the book alternate between Nick’s present day narration and diary entries from Amy in the past.\u00a0 Amy’s journal chronicles the couple’s initial meeting, their blossoming relationship and subsequently how their life becomes miserable after their marriage.\u00a0 Nick’s narration cover his initial panic and horror at his wife’s disappearance and his gradual desperation as both the police force and the media begin to suspect him of murder.<\/p>\n

Author Gillian Flynn dips into her own career for source material when it comes to the strains on Nick and Amy’s lives.\u00a0 For many years Nick and Amy live a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle bolstered by Amy’s parents who made a lot of money publishing children’s books starring their daughter as the protagonist.\u00a0 This cushy lifestyle is brought to an abrupt halt when the GFC meltdown from a few years ago strikes.\u00a0 Both Nick and Amy are authors in rapidly diminishing industries – Nick is a film and television critic and Amy writes quiz columns for women’s magazines – and both suddenly find themselves out of a job when online journalism swallows print media whole.<\/p>\n

Nick and Amy move back to Nick’s hometown of Carthage, Missouri where they live a much more modest and mundane existence in a tiny rural town far removed from the glitz and glamour of their years in New York.\u00a0 Their relationship gradually sours as both resent one another passive aggressively for their poor fortunes.\u00a0 When Amy’s parents become ill and ask to ‘borrow back’ the money that they gave Amy, the couple are effectively left with nothing.\u00a0 From there, the mysterious events of the fifth wedding anniversary take place and Amy goes missing, presumed dead.<\/p>\n

In case you ever wondered, I write any book reviews on The FAT Website under the tongue-in-cheek pretense of being a ‘book club’ but offline, there are times when I do like to read a book at the same time as a friend to share the experience of a good story.\u00a0 And if you’re ever inclined to do such a thing yourself, I’d highly recommend a book like Gone Girl<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s a great book for stopping between chapters and comparing reactions and theories with a friend on what will come next.<\/p>\n

Gillian Flynn has put together a thoroughly enjoyable page-turner here that rapidly throws cliff-hangers, unexpected twists and wild revelations at the reader with reckless abandon.\u00a0 Almost every chapter in this damn book finishes with a hook that changes the complexion of the story.\u00a0 This might make it sound like a cheap or chaotic read but I think Flynn manages to pull it off with real flair.\u00a0 I think she has a knack for selectively leaving out crucial information until just the right moment.\u00a0 I can’t imagine any reader guessing the direction that this who-dunnit will take and you’ll probably change your opinion of Nick and Amy multiple times throughout the book.\u00a0 Ultimately, Flynn doesn’t really shy away from making both of them intensely unlikable at times and yet they are both so strong in their convictions that I suspect most people will still end up rooting for one or the other by the end.<\/p>\n

The other thing I liked about Gone Girl<\/em> is how Flynn takes this wild, over the top story and grounds it in the context of some very contemporary themes.\u00a0 The book is set in present day (2012) and there are some interesting contemporary themes that are explored in the book:\u00a0 how traditional media can influence the handling of a criminal investigation, how social networking can influence the public perception of somebody accused of a crime, how gender politics in the media can influence a couple’s expectations of one another.\u00a0 The fact that this is all written from the perspective of someone who used to make a living writing for Entertainment Weekly<\/em> of all things makes Flynn’s portrayal of the media all the more interesting.<\/p>\n

For no particular reason, thriller novels aren’t really a genre I read particularly often.\u00a0 In the case of Gone Girl<\/em>, I’m glad I did.\u00a0 It’s fun, keeps you guessing and has surprising depth and social commentary behind the madness.<\/p>\n

Next up:<\/p>\n

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The Sister’s Brothers by Patrick DeWitt – <\/strong>a fable set during the Gold Rush in the American Fronter where two hired guns, Eli and Charlie Sisters, go on the trail of an elusive prospector.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I was sitting outside the Commodore’s mansion, waiting for Charlie to come out with news of the job…”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.” On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy disappears and their home shows signs of a violent struggle.\u00a0 There are traces of blood but no body is discovered.\u00a0 What happened?\u00a0 Who killed Amy?\u00a0 Is she even dead?\u00a0 Just what is going on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,230],"tags":[2399,1465,1464],"class_list":["post-9676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-book-club","tag-book-club","tag-gillian-flynn","tag-gone-girl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9676"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14048,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9676\/revisions\/14048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}