Gone Girl

A Novel

By: Gillian Flynn

Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne

Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “mercilessly entertaining” (Vanity Fair) instant classic “about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships” (Lev Grossman, Time)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenes

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY TIME AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • People • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • Slate • Kansas City Star • USA Today • Christian Science Monitor

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Chicago Tribune • HuffPost • Newsday

©2012 Gillian Flynn (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Absorbing . . . In masterly fashion, Flynn depicts the unraveling of a marriage—and of a recession-hit Midwest—by interweaving the wife’s diary entries with the husband’s first-person account.”—The New Yorker

“Ms. Flynn writes dark suspense novels that anatomize violence without splashing barrels of blood around the pages . . . Ms. Flynn has much more up her sleeve than a simple missing-person case. As Nick and Amy alternately tell their stories, marriage has never looked so menacing, narrators so unreliable.”—The Wall Street Journal

“The story unfolds in precise and riveting prose . . . even while you know you’re being manipulated, searching for the missing pieces is half the thrill of this wickedly absorbing tale.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

AMAZING(pun intended)

The dialogue back and forth is like a child like banter, i absolutely loved how the author incorporated both amy and nicks perspective. Would definitely recommend!

The narration was great!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

One likeable character would be a great start.

What was most disappointing about Gillian Flynn’s story?

Going to avoid spoilers, in case you choose to listen to this book, but my general opinion is as follows. Many people talked about the "many twists and turns," there were a few but I didn't find any that surprising, maybe I just read too many psychological thrillers but everything was pretty well laid out by the half way point, surprises over. Plus, you should always have at least one decent person in the story, even if it's an antihero that you root for despite their shortcomings, not in this one. Also, it was lengthy for the story and got boring at times. I kept waiting for things to get better, for the twists making the time worth while, for people in the book to at least get what was coming to them, but it didn't happen. I was so excited about this book after enjoying, "Dark Places," so much, but I was truly disappointed and would recommend that you skip this one entirely.

What does Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They did a great job with the characters, reading each so well. You could have known who was speaking without being told.

Do you think Gone Girl needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, it ended so badly that I follow up would be torturous.

Any additional comments?

If you would like a great book with great characters and fantastic twists try anything by Lisa Gardner. "Love You More," was excellent.

A dark twisted story about dark twisted people

Would you try another book from Gillian Flynn and/or Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne ?

Hmmm not sure this was a bit dark for my tastes.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Sad

Do you think Gone Girl needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, I don't want to know anything more about either of those people.

Any additional comments?

I like stories about "real" people, but these two take it to an extreme - they are way to sick for me to want to know as much as I know about them. The first part was entertaining and intrieging, the second half I found quite depressing. On the good side - it was well crafted and narrated and kept me very interested until close to the end when I saw no hope in sight and then I felt cheated - why should I have cared about two suck sick individuals.

Gone (Crazy) Girl??

This book is not an easy book to read. It's dark and disturbing but I was completely drawn into the story. It starts off a little slow and then sucker punches you about half-way through. Even though I had most of the plot figured out it still CHILLED me to my bones. I could not stop thinking about this book long after I was finished.

Like many other reviewers I did not like how the story ended. That being said, it was a fantastic listen and I highly recommend this book.

Basis instinct, anyone?

Just when the story starts to teeter on the ridiculous, the author snaps it back to a cat and mouse, who done it read. Good story, lots of twists and turns I was not expecting. It really did remind me at times of Basic Instinct, (the movie). But I have to give the 5 star, 2 thumbs up rating to both narrators, who captured every nuance of the 2 main characters. This book would not have been as good without the amazing performance of both Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne. I am not familiar with either, but wow - they both nailed it!

Beautifully done

I tend to avoid pop culture as so much of it is derivative or poorly written, but this is one that stands out. It is a thoroughly enjoyable and fast paced page-turner of a mystery thriller and a lot of fun.

The rotating narrators is a technique that works perfectly. Hard to say too much without giving something away.

I liked the "voices" of the characters, especially Amy after the halfway point. I did have a couple of issues with the dialogue in the first part in regards to Nick, both from the author, and from the narrator, that didn't fit, but not worth going into here. If you're listening to this book you're here for exactly what it will give you and not for stylistic/literary crit, and there was nothing here so egregious that I couldn't overlook it and have fun with this.

Now and then you run across something that is done so well that it's tempting to call it an unrepeatable performance and genre changing, like Hunt for Red October, or the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and other standouts. Recommending this to many people.

Only caveat would be if you're put off by some explicit sexual moments and language.

I get what I want from Shakespeare, and I got what I wanted from Flynn. Not that this is a literary masterpiece, but it is standing rather tall on the thriller shelf.

It may be that Flynn is a far better writer than most of the pop mystery stuff that pours out daily and I may look at her others. Hard to beat this one though.

Overstays its welcome.

Overrated and overlong. I saw the 'twist' coming after about 10 minutes. I was drumming my fingers for the reveal, but it took hours. Finally, it arrived. Then the novel became rather intriguing and gripping. I liked this bit. But then the one of the characters began to behave completely out of character for no reason and from then on the novel descended into clumsy contrivance upon contrivance.

And it's so darn long. It would have made a really good 2-hour David Fincher movie. Oh wait...

The readers are adequate.

The One Everybody’s Talking About

Most people have heard of this story by now, if only because it’s on all the bestseller lists and Reese Witherspoon is reportedly slated to produce and star in the upcoming movie. Yeah, it’s that kind of book, which I usually try to avoid like last week’s pizza crusts. But so many people I follow over at LibraryThing raved about it, added to the fact that there are not just one, but two unreliable narrators seemed like the perfect summer treat. The novel is about a young couple, Amy and Nick, whose marriage just *may* have a few problems. Amy is the only child of psychologist parents who can’t stop going on about what wonderful soul mates they are and who’ve made a fortune on a series of books featuring the “Amazing Amy” character, a girl so perfect that her real-life counterpart can't ever hope to live up to her image. Born and raised in New York City, the mecca of the publishing industry, Amy, who could have just sat back and lived on her trust fund, eventually found work being a writer of sorts for women's magazines. Nick on the other hand comes from a bookless home in small town Missouri, and against all odds made his way to the Big Apple, also to make a living as a magazine writer. When they first met, they were fascinated by one another, both for how just too clever they were, and the fact that they’re both gorgeous didn't hurt either. So they married and lived happily ever after. Not. After making their home in NYC for the first few years of their marriage, they both found themselves out of work when the magazine industry went bust thanks to the all the free content on the internet. Against Amy's true wishes, Nick convinced her to move back to his hometown, where he found perfect contentment running his own bar, whereas Amy felt like a fish out of water in a town where there are rules about what to do with tupperware. The intrigue kicks off on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, when Nick comes home to an empty house which looks like the scene of a crime. Amy's gone without a trace, and as the police start investigating, they quickly come to suspect that Nick has murdered her. Of course, this might have something to do with the fact that plenty of evidence makes him look guilty as hell, not to mention like a complete asshole as well.

Two things about this novel. 1) I couldn't stop listening to this audio version perfectly narrated by two readers who alternate between Nick’s and Amy’s first person accounts, and finished it in two days. 1.5) I hated* this story because 2) I was scared out of my wits, but not for the reason you might expect; people like Nick and Amy really do exist in real life, only they don't necessarily resort to psychotic behaviour... or at least, not on that scale. I've got to hand it to Gillian Flynn for being an amazing storyteller. She builds up the various elements of this thriller in a way that has the reader constantly wondering what’s coming next and makes two truly despicable characters absolutely fascinating case studies of the state of matrimony in the 21st century. For those of us who aren't married, this novel is like a warning signal not to believe it when someone seems to be too good to be true, because they inevitably are; having worked in magazines and done the rounds of the dating scene in a big city, I can personally vouch for that. Readers who are lucky enough to be in sane and loving marriages probably finish the book feeling like they got incredibly lucky. And if you’re one of those, yes, you did, and now please shut up about it.

* hated it so much that I can't wait to listen to other works by Flynn now.

Wow!

Short review. It has all been said and too easy to spoil for others. I so enjoyed this audiobook. It is quite unique with the two person narrative which alternates and makes it perfect for an audiobook. One of the best psychological suspense novels I have listened to in a long time. Narrators were right on. (Warning: if you are squirmish about profanity, this may not be your book. You don't want your kids listening in the background.) So good! I'm telling everyone about this one!

Perfect Summer Listen. Perfect

What did you love best about Gone Girl?

This is one well-written thriller. Not only do the two main characters play the other characters in the book - but they play the listener/reader as well. Your allegiance will swing wildly. Why? Because these are the most likable unlikable main characters ever. Nick and Amy are both whip smart. And wickedly funny. They buy your affection with their wit. Plus - there's a rather intriguing battle of the sexes narrative going on throughout the story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Gone Girl?

Actually - there are so many - but one of Amy's diary entires - from early in the book - really made me laugh. She's starting her theme of being "the cool girl" and refers to her desperation to be liked by a man as taking her from mildly accommodating to full out Cabaret Liza Minelli bumping and grinding.

Which character – as performed by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne – was your favorite?

I'm going to punt and go with a tie. Both are..perfect. Just like Nick and Amy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. I wanted to stretch it out. Forever.

Any additional comments?

Flynn does it all. She's a storyteller. And she creates characters with depth. She also gets you into a small town setting and the supporting characters are - and this is a tightrope act - neither romanticized nor caricatured. There's plenty of black humor - but Flynn never goes over the edge into easy jokes. Plus, the story really does confront today's sexual politics. The two main characters might not be the spokespeople you'd pick for a very frank discussion of the battle between the sexes...but there are some very real issues brought up by these fictional protagonists. Think of Nick and Amy as a very dark spin on Nick and Nora.