Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I don't know why but, these days, I enjoy films and books that involve crime, murder and investigation. This doesn't mean that I enjoy watching people doing crime, though. What I like about these kinds of story is how they show me the story behind a crime; the reasons why people do it and how it affects people who are involved. I just find it interesting.

So I bought this book called Gone Girl last week, which involves crime, murder and investigation. It's a best-selling book that earns a lot of positive reviews. The author is a former journalist named Gillian Flynn. The story is about a married couple, Nick and Amy Dunne. Nick and Amy are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. However, Amy, the wife, disappears from their house in Missouri on the anniversary day. At first, everyone thinks that it is an abduction done by someone from outside the house. But as the investigation goes on, people begin to think that it might not be done by someone from outside the house, but someone from the inside.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The story is told from first person point of view, but the POV is always different in every chapter. The first chapter is told from Nick's POV, the second one is from Amy's, the third one is from Nick's, and so on. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is called Boy Loses Girl. The second one is Boy Meets Girl. The last one is Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa).

The novel starts off as a drama. It's kind of emotional and tragic. In this first part, we follow Nick as he tries to find his missing wife. Meanwhile, we can also learn about Nick and Amy's relationship since the first time they meet (which is seven years before Amy's disappearance) until the day of her disappearance from Amy's diary entries. When I finished reading this part, I felt this burning hatred towards Nick, the husband, and felt very related to Amy, the wife. He's so busy being angry because life is not as good as he expects and forgets that his wife is also a human being who can get hurt by his anger and hatred. As a reader, I knew for sure that Nick doesn't kill or hurt Amy, but, at this point, I thought he might actually kill his own wife.

But then second part starts with a plot twist that comes in like Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball.

BOOM!

Everything that I had come to believe at this point turns out to be a lie. A BIG LIE! I felt like I was slapped in the face. I just didn't know what to believe or feel anymore. I almost threw my book to the wall when I reached the plot twist. I'm not exaggerating. I know some people who have read this books say that they have predicted the twist since the very first time. And I actually knew the twist before I read the book because I accidentally read a comment on Youtube about it (I hate going through comment sections!). But I still felt shocked when I found out because I didn't think the delivery of the twist would be like that. After the twist, readers will get the truth about Amy's disappearance. And the truth is ugly, very ugly.

So, the ending comes in the final part, Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa). The ending is really tragic, especially for one of the main characters. I read somewhere that many people hate the ending, but I don't. It's not that I like it. Dude, the ending is sickening. But I think it's realistic, believable. There is no justice for any of the characters at the end, which hurts, but reflects the reality. In real life, justice doesn't always come to everyone, right? Not everyone can have a happy ending.

Gone Girl movie teaser poster

Gone Girl is the craziest book I've ever read. However, I have to admit that it is brilliant. I think the way the author plays with the readers' feelings by telling the story from Nick's and Amy's perspectives plays a huge part in the novel's success. The story also gives me a lot of life lessons, which are:

1. There's a difference between loving the idea of someone and loving someone for who they really are. I didn't know what it meant before, but this book has taught me what it means. When you love the idea of someone that you have in your head, you could even do terrible things in order to force that person to be the idea, even though it is not who that person truly is.
2. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, just like the tagline on the poster above. If you have read the book, that sentence would make you want to laugh, bitterly. Yeah, Nick doesn't know what kind of wife that he's got until she's gone. Haha.
3. Justice doesn't come to everyone, like I said before.

So the book has been adapted into a movie and it's going to be released on October 3 this year. It's directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network) and stars Ben Affleck (Argo, Batman vs Superman) as Nick, Rosamund Pike (An Education) as Amy and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as  Desi (Amy's creepy ex-boyfriend). The movie's early reviews are mostly positive (Well, it is directed by David Fincher, man! His movies are always great!). I also like the cast of the movie. Ben Affleck is perfect for Nick (Nick is described as a guy who is handsome but makes people wanna slap him, and Mr Affleck fits this description. It's a compliment, really!). I also like Rosamund Pike as Amy. She's beautiful but has this little danger in her eyes and deep voice that is sexy and scary at the same time (Grrr). I'm definitely going to watch the movie. You can watch the trailer below.

That's all from me about Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I'm probably gonna write again soon about a new TV show that I just found called How to Get Away with Murder. Yup, it's about murder again! 

Hope you like my first book review! :)

Rating : 4,5/5