Frightful Friday: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week.

This week’s featured book is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn:

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Crown (June 5, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 030758836X
• Source: Publisher

Nick & Amy Dunne are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. The couple has experienced their share of challenges recently, both losing jobs, forcing them to move back to Nick’s hometown of Carthage, Missouri.  Nick now runs a bar with his sister, Margo.

Any normal couple would be making dinner plans on their anniversary. We learn early on, however, that Nick & Amy aren’t your average couple. On the the surface perhaps, but deep down…

When Amy suddenly goes missing Nick is instantly put under pressure by the local police. The “crime scene” looks staged; only one room in the house shows evidence of a  struggle.  Nick decides to use the scavenger hunt Amy created for him (her traditional anniversary gift to him) to trace her steps the days preceding her disappearance. Meanwhile the police discover Amy’s diary, the her entries revealing an abusive marriage. The evidence continues to build against Nick and the town’s golden boy begins to crumble. Secrets he’s hidden from Margo (“Go”), his closest of confidants, cast even more doubt to his innocence.  Nick’s mission to follow Amy’s scavenger hunt to the very end becomes more necessary and as he follows each clue, he begins to understand the meaning behind each of the locations.

As with her previous books, Flynn builds a tremendously well-plotted thriller, leaving the reader questioning the guilt or innocence of Nick. The point of view alternates between Nick & Amy. Not too far into the book, a bombshell is revealed, which forced me to quite literally shout out in both disbelief and delight.  She elicits this reaction in me near the end of the book, making me realize I shouldn’t read this book in public. She twists aspects of everyday marriage into a sadistic mutation of love. I mean this in the nicest way, but her writing and her characters remind me of driving past the scene a car accident…you want to stop looking, you think you should stop looking, but you can’t tear yourself away.

A fan of Flynn’s writing for years, I was so ecstatic to see that she’s done it again, producing an absolutely mind-bending,  psychologically tormenting/thrilling read! Having met the author, it amazes me that she could write characters so twisted and demented.  I think it is for this very reason I have remained a devoted fan of Flynn’s writing, basically ready to devour anything she writes. She creates a facade to her characters and then shatters it when the timing is right. A truly talented and skilled writer, to say the least. I’m also excited that so many readers are discovering Flynn’s writing thanks to this book. Hello! It’s about time!

Bottom line, this book will without a doubt top my list of favorite books. Highly, highly recommended.

Please be sure to check out the other stops in this tour!