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

Worth listening

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Very well written book with an unconventional way of storytelling. Kept me interested in the way the story developed

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Great twist in the story and the ending is not what I was expecting or hoping.

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

Both Amy and Nick are well written characters that throughout leave you liking and disliking them equally

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The ending is unconventional and left me agitated.

I liked it, but didn't love it.

Yes, there are certainly twists. I struggled to suspend my "oh come on, that would never happen" inner voice with this one. I listened to the book first, then months later,tried to watch the DVD at home. I just can't get past that inner voice.

I wouldn't say it's fine writing, but it's very descriptive and makes you feel as if you are there, watching it all unfold...so she does a great job of that. To me, it's similar slightly, to the style of American Psycho.

I really didn't like one single character in it...not even the "more likeable" ones, but that helped to set the tone I guess. I finished the book here in a few days, because it definitely leaves you wanting to find out what happens next. The movie, I've turned off twice and may not even bother to go back, haven't decided yet.

People seem to LOVE this book, I'm just not one of them. I thought it was good, but not great. That opinion comes due to what I found to be a completely incredulous story in the end.

Psycho Bitch

So yeah... It's one hell of a book. It's entertaining, shocking, and at times incredibly frightening. Subject matter is the strength of this novel... Read it and you'll see what I mean, but the writing is not. The novel's ideas are worthy of being debated for years in university halls and by critics and writers, but the actual writing is dime a dozen. Too bad considering how truly mind boggling the format and tone and conflicts this novel describes are. The two readers do an excellent job in tone and emotion, their only barrier being the cheap writing style Flynn uses. No disrespect meant for Flynn either because her ideas are genius, she just needs some coaching on her writing.

Twisted and intriguing

Good read/listen. Keeps you intrigued. You never know what's going to happen next. Read it!

Good beach listening, but not much more

I've listened to all of Gillian Flynn's books, and this one is unfortunately one of the weaker offerings.

The premise of the book is interesting and enough to keep you going through the early chapters -- a husband whose wife has disappeared goes through all of the motions that we know from watching similar cases: the local news interview, the "search" for the missing wife with volunteers from the community, running from the press who hound him with questions.

The problem is that the remainder of the book just becomes so increasingly far-fetched that you lose sight of any realism or surprise in the plot -- all of it is just so incredible and unbelievable that it stops being shocking. Sure, the characters are interesting, in that they have an agenda and are plotting moves that are not apparent in the early parts of the book. But all of it seems so fake and staged that I actually felt a bit cheated at the end when the author revealed all of the hidden details in the last third of the book. You mean, that's it?! That's what I was waiting for all of this time?

Still, it's not a bad book, and the performances are pitch perfect readers, so I can't say that it is not worth the time. If you don't know what to do with one extra credit in your account and you like Ms. Flynn's work anyway, then buy this. Otherwise, there's probably other, better books for your time.

Very unpredictable story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story! I wasn't expecting it to turn out the way it did. At the begining I felt it was sligthly over detailed but it makes more sense later in the story. I would highly recommend this book!

A crazy train of a ride

So i have been waiting for Flynn to release a new book for quite some time now, and this was anything but a disappointment. The Characters were literally insane, the story kept you guessing, and the outcome is still a bit creepy.

Of course you have tons of mature language and pretty graphic scenes, typical in all of Flynn's works, but it was masterfully written.

The Performance is one of my favorites, extremely well narrated.

Great Narrators!

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the narrators. They both did a superb job and helping me reimagined the characters as coming in I knew who the actors were going to be.

Well done!

Well Read

One of the better audibles - good voices and cadence by the readers. Loved this book.

saw the movie first...

even knowing the twist, the book was completely engrossing. great performances from the narrators