80 Books No.24: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This is a book which has been massively hyped up over the last few months, with bookstores shoving it to the front and people raving about it online. It's been optioned for a film by Reese Witherspoon's production company and the author is working on the screenplay. So it'll become yet another one of those 'which is better, the film or the book?' I'll get back to you on that particular debate when the film is released.

For now, I'll concentrate on the book. This is billed as a thriller, albeit with some deviations from the genre, and I don't usually get very involved in thrillers. I've read Dan Brown's Langdon books (apart from The Lost Symbol - not religious enough for me) and a couple of others (usually religiously themed) but largely not been interested enough to pick up many more. I bought this one largely because it was being so hyped up, and because the front cover is cracking - I love a black front cover.

The general premise is that Nick Dunne's wife Amy goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. There are signs of a struggle and strange clues, and Nick is being shifty for some reason. The chapters alternate between Nick's narration of the investigation into Amy's disappearance, and Amy's diary entries from the last seven years. The police have their suspicions and to this end, it's pretty obvious where the novel is going. Then it all goes crazy and you don't trust anything again.

Unreliable and hazy narrators are a really interesting device to use, if they're done well. I'm thinking here of Plath's The Bell Jar, Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and even Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin (yet another 'which is better, the book or the film?' Ans: the film makes no sense without having watched the film). They keep you guessing and second-guessing exactly what is going on. Flynn uses them well here, until you can no longer decide whether you should believe Nick or Amy. It's a really effective reminder that any marriage has two sides, as the front cover's strapline says.

Both Nick and Amy are largely unsympathetic characters, Amy more so. It's hard to say much more without spoiling the book, so suffice to say that she is the more unreliable narrator of the two. It all becomes clear once you've read it!

Overall, an enjoyable book, one of the few I can genuinely say I've enjoyed this year. Well worth a read despite the hype.