Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Yes I have read several books since I last blogged, depsite my lack of activity here. Perhaps this is a new years resolution to be more pro-active or perhaps I will not be back for another year. Either way, I wanted to share my thoughts on this book I have literally just put down and finished.

Gone Girl is a surprising, twist of a book which will have you hooked and in living-fear of relationships! I love how much I ended up enjoying this book. It takes you on more of a journey than I anticipated and had me looking at the human personality in new, intriguing and frustrating ways.

Gone Girl is the story of a young woman who disappears from her marital home and her husband's confusion over her disappearance and his struggle to fit the pieces together. The story takes on a first-person / epistolary form to create 2 central characters within the narrative that will have you veering from one spouses side to the other. That's the beauty of it, who's side are you on?! both...neither.... the book makes you question your judgement as Gillian Flynn feeds you bombshells disguised as breadcrumbs, very clever.

It is a rather sinister story, but dark in the simplest of ways; the characters are not from a horror film. The fear I felt reading this book, came from how easy it would be to know these people, how easily people with generally good judgement are completely duped, how easily a sequence of events and a set of circumstances can be twisted into the most false and damning manner. It made me frustrated to think how one (or two) sociopath's adventure is 10 more people's lives being played with and how easily you could end up in someone else's game.

Perhaps it touched on a fear of being completely out of control of a situation (Am I Amy?!) and that's when I knew I liked this book. If a novel can make you reflect on your own world as well as the world you have retreated to, then the author has done an amazing job.

 For me there are two types of books:                                                   the ones you can completely immerse yourself in because they are a total escape from a reality, and the ones you can completely immerse yourself in because they are a total connection to a reality. I say 'a reality' as we all connect differently to books, to life etc etc, so for me, this novel connected to a reality; the reality that we meet people mid-story, and the excitement of not knowing that whole story, but also the fear of that very same thing.

personal rating: 8/10