eilonwyhan

Nick and Amy have the perfect marriage, until she goes missing on their 5th wedding anniversary. Is Nick to blame? All signs point to yes.

Nick and Amy meet cute and fall so madly in love they get married. They have a wonderful life in New York, until they are both laid off from their magazine jobs. Nick makes the executive decision to move back to Missouri to help his twin sister take care of their dying mother and aging father. That's when it all goes to hell. On their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing.

Told in alternating voices, Gone Girl takes us on a roller-coaster ride of money, infidelity, marital discord, and pregnancy. In his chapters, Nick tells us about how he is dealing with police (and public) suspicion. The more he tells us, the guiltier he looks, because we know he's lying to the police. Amy's diary entries from the last seven years clue us in to her state of mind about their marriage. It's only a matter of time before the police can put together all the clues, many of which come from Amy's elaborate treasure hunt she sets up for Nick every year. As the pieces fell together, I couldn't put the book down.

I don't want to give anything away to those who haven't read it yet. The structure of the book (the alternating chapters) works really well, especially at the turning point in the book. It almost feels like you are watching a movie, and suddenly one of the characters breaks the fourth wall, looks directly at the camera and says, "Gotcha!" At that point, I really couldn't put the book down. In fact, I actually started laughing at how everyone was trying to out-maneuver each other. I don't know that I was completely satisfied with the ending. I guess I know why Gillian Flynn did it, but it would have been so much fun to see the perp get their comeuppance. Still, it was fast-paced thriller with some juicy twists.