Book Review: Gone Girl


Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn

Synopsis:

'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?' Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war...
Thoughts on the Book
"Love is the world's infinite mutability; lies, hatred, murder even, are all knit up in it; it is the inevitable blossoming of its opposites, a magnificent rose smelling faintly of blood." - Tony Kushner, The Illusion
"When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with. Like a child, I picture opening her skull, unspooling her brain and sifting through it, trying to catch and pin down her thoughts. What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?" 

Just from reading the first paragraph, I already know that I'll love this book. It was slow at first but the slow pacing added more thrill to the story. It made me curious on what will happen next, or how will the book end? There came a point when I wanted to cheat and have a peek at the end of the book just to see who really is the culprit. It's just good that I have that much self-control. As much as I wanted to, I know that it would be really worth the wait. I'm a fast reader but I read this book slowly. Reading this book will make you think and analyze each character, what they say, how they interact with the other characters, etc. It will make you feel paranoid and begin to doubt the conclusion you have already established. 

AMY & NICK. These couple are one hell of a twisted pair. Their thoughts, their beliefs, how they lie even to themselves. They both grow in an abnormal environment. Amy grew up as an only child to a successful author couples. She was an inspiration for a children's book Amazing Amy. She grew up believing that she's the hero - that she's perfect. She doesn't want to be seen as a woman who have flaws. Nick, on the other hand, grew up in a broken family. He has a twin sister, Margo. He grew up proving that he will not end up like his dumb ass father. He was a successful writer and he is married to a wealthy and a very beautiful Amy. But that was until they were both lay-offed from their companies. That's when they realized that they have been living in a lie. Their personalities were made up. That's not who they really where. That's what they want to be. And then, everything falls apart - Nick was not himself, Amy became the wife Nick never imagined her to be and then Amy disappears on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary.

The story is really twisted. So many twists. It'll make you crave for more and just when you began to figure out what's really happening, another twist will appear. I don't know if I'll be able to live in a family like that. I don't know how they stomach each other. There were times when I hated the characters but there are also times when I like them. There were times when I really pity the characters because somehow it's not their fault why they grew up like that. The environment where they grew up was also a factor in who they were today. These type of people need help. They should seek the help of professionals. 

As much as I want to write more about this book, I'm afraid that I'll be divulging the major suspense and twists that are to be devoured in this book so I'll leave it at that. That's up for you readers to find out. 

Quotable Quotes
"Those awful if only relationships: This marriage would be great if only...and you sense the if only list is a lot longer than either of them realizes."
"Sometimes the answer is at the bottom of a bottle."
"I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script.  It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless automat of characters. And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls. It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I'm not a real person and neither is anyone else."
"Love makes you want to be a better man - right, right. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are."
"It took this awful situation for us to realize it. Nick and I fit together. I am a little too much, and he is a little too little. I am a thornbush, bristling from the overattention of my parents, and he is a man of a million little fatherly stab wounds, and my thorns fit perfectly into them."
"Always have a backup plan to the backup plan."
"Because you can't be as in love as we were and not have it invade your bone marrow. Our kind of love can go into remission, but it's always waiting to return. Like the world's sweetest cancer."
*** 
This morning he was stroking my hair and asking what else he could do for me and I said, "My gosh, Nick, why are you so wonderful to me?"
He was supposed to say: You deserve it. I love you.
But he said, "Because I feel sorry for you."
"Why?"
"Because every morning you have to wake up and be you." 
Rating: 4/5

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