Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I just finished one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn has been a hot topic lately. It’s on the New York Times Bestsellers List and was recommended to me by multiple friends. I finally got the chance to pick it up about two weeks ago. And now I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s incredibly well-written. It’s funny, dark, suspenseful, and smart. For those of you in my book club or anyone who hasn’t finished it yet, stop reading here and go finish it. The plot starts out simple enough: wife goes missing, marriage is rocky, husband is suspected. Typical crime novel stuff. The point of view switches back and forth between the husband in present-day and the missing wife through her diary from the day they met to just before she goes missing. Her diary paints one picture of her husband and their relationship, while the husband’s point of view paints another one. The husband readily admits to the reader he is flawed...and lying to the police. His lies are not revealed until late into the novel, leaving you constantly questioning whether or not he did it. Through her diary entries, the wife is giddy and sweet, eager to please her husband - in a word, likeable. A little more than halfway through the novel, after you've made your decision about how you feel about each one of them, Flynn offers up such an unexpected, brilliant twist, it sends you reeling.

While this is a crime novel at the surface (complete with psychopath), on a deeper level, the book explores the difference between loving someone and loving the idea of him or her. Of the fine line between love and hate and the dependency both emotions can create. How all consuming both can be. If you love/hate someone so deeply that it becomes part of your sense of self, who are you without that person? Who do you become? It's a brilliant underlying theme that takes this novel to a higher level.

The twist in this book is so great that I already want to go back and reread the first part, knowing what I know now, which, to me, is the sign of a great book. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s one of the most frustrating endings of any book I’ve ever read. Part of me absolutely hated it and another part of me absolutely loved it. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat until you finish. And you’ll either hate the ending or love it, (or both, like me). But no matter your feelings on the ending, this book will make you think, it’ll suck you in, make you invested in the characters and plot, and then turn everything on its head, twice. And the ride will be totally worth it, I promise.