Gone Girl

Nick Dunne, a handsome man-child, and Amy Elliot, the brilliant daughter of a pair of successful children’s authors, seem like the perfect couple. They are both writers (he covers entertainment, she generates psychology quizzes for popular magazines), and they take each other’s breath away. But when the economy tanks and they are forced to relocate to Nick’s Missouri hometown to care for his ailing mother, their marriage begins to unravel. Then, on their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy simply vanishes. As evidence begins to mount that Nick is responsible for her disappearance, he remains steadfast in proclaiming his innocence, but he soon finds that he has a lot else to answer for.

Gone Girl is Gillian Flynn’s third novel, and although she is only in her early 40s, it is likely that she has reached her peak. This genre-bending mindscrew is executed so masterfully that it will prove quite difficult to top. Part mystery, part relationship drama, the book is funny and poignant in some places and starkly terrifying in others. And while seasoned mystery readers can safely predict a few of the narrative’s myriad twists and turns, there are so many layers to the story that one will make new discoveries all the way through.

Much of the successful execution can be traced to the book’s narrative structure. The first section of the book alternates a chapter from Nick’s perspective with a diary entry from Amy’s. Seeing the same relationship from two radically different perspectives makes us doubt who can really be trusted, and when a third perspective is introduced in the book’s second section, you realize that everyone is lying about something. Trying to piece the truth together on our own is half the fun of reading.

Flynn also deserves praise for achieving what many other authors have failed to do: she writes about writers and keeps it interesting. Often, writer characters are thinly veiled author proxies that make readers want to roll their eyes. But while Flynn’s experiences (she used to write for Entertainment Weekly) certainly inform Gone Girl, they don’t dominate everything else on the page. Neither Nick nor Amy is meant to be Flynn, though both arguably contain parts of her. By giving them distinct identities apart from her own, she is able to have them participate in a plot that surpasses mere authorial fantasy.

Without giving too much away, it’s safe to say that a lot happens in Gone Girl that defies not only expectations but the bounds of human ingenuity. But just as the novel’s most devious planner thoroughly covers her tracks, so too does Flynn: everything that transpires makes sense in context. So accept that you will be surprised, and enjoy the ride.

9/10