Gone Girl

Wicked fun.

“Gone Girl” has been all the buzz this month, so I grabbed it for July 4th weekend, knowing I’d have a solid chunk of time to spend with it. This may well be the “it” book for the summer.

Chicago-based author Gillian Flynn takes readers on a roller coaster journey through the courtship, marriage and subsequent disappearance of Amy Dunne. Husband Nick, a hapless-but-harmless out-of-work writer has moved Amy back from spectacular NYC to the Midwest and the M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I to be closer to his sister, his dying mother and Alzheimer’s father. Amy, whose parents made a small fortune off her childhood using it for storybook fodder, raided her trust fund, leaving little financial reason to continue to make a go of it in the big city, so the timing was right. Lest I give away too much, this isn’t exactly where either Nick or Amy thought they would be 5 years into their marriage. Nick now runs a bar with his twin sister, Margot, and Amy is just … yeah. She’s got a lot of time on her hands.

The story switches off between Amy and Nick’s narration, and the book is divided into 3 neat parts, giving the reader pause as they continue forward. Is Nick innocent? Is ‘Go? Maybe it’s a crazy cop, or one of Amy’s stalkers from her past. Or maybe, as Nick’s dad believes, she’s just a crazy bitch.

This book isn’t so much “Gotcha!” as it is, “Wow, she be craaaaazy.” But it’s SO FUN. Given Nick’s faults, Amy being whack and her parents being skeevy, there’s no single character that I rooted for — it was pretty much fun watching them all squirm. However, if you need a book with a hero or heroine, read it for Margot’s brutal truth and unwavering loyalty to her brother, Nick. Or their dad’s lack of a filter. Every book needs a character wandering away from a nursing home muttering about stupid crazy bitches. Just read it. Guaranteed summer fun.

Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn