Gone Girl

A Novel

De: Gillian Flynn

Narrado por: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne

#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 “One of the Best Books of the Decade”)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenes

ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME, ONE OF CNN'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE, AND ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE

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

New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

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?

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

Demented, twisted, sick and I loved it!

This book is twisted.... this book is sick... this book is demented.... this book is dark.... and for all these reasons I should be disgusted.... but above all of those, it was also indulgent, decadent, intricate, masterful, engaging, enthralling and simply... amazing.

Let's start with the writing itself... The writing was probably the worst part of the book BUT, that being said, the writing was actually done really well! The choice of words, sentence formation, the flow, it all was just seamless in nature, the building suspense, the tone… they were all great! I remember commenting to myself while going through this book that this was written really well. This lends to one of the book's most alluring traits... It allows you to be able to get absolutely and positively lost in it. When a book is easy to pass through like this, it's easy to see the time fly by.

Secondly you have the story... the story was (and I go back to my intro) twisted, sick, dark and demented. From the start of the book you know something is not right but not even I thought it would end up the way it did. The more you go into the story and the more you learn about Nick and Amy, the more you find yourself getting lost in the story. This book felt like such a guilty pleasure, that one night stand that you enjoyed supremely, that ice cream sundae you can't help but have even though you’re on a diet, that extra slice of cake that you stole from your older sibling... It fells completely wrong and you know it is completely indulgent but it also feels oh so good. That was what this book represented... If you have even an inkling of a dark side and willing to go through a raw, uninhibited, honest and demented view of an atypical relationship then you would simply LOVE this book. If you are looking for a cookie-cutter/true love conquer all/marriage is wonderful/life is perfect story then run for the hills and don't even look twice on this book.

Thirdly, the narration... It is a toss up to me between the story and the narration as to which was better. I can't decide, every time I choose one of the two I see the merits of the other. I love multi-person narrated titles and when it is done well, I am prone to raving about it. The narrators here though were completely rave worthy. They are able to portray Amy and Nick through the various stages of the book with such precision.... you can feel the angst, anger, apathy, vengeance, brokenness, tension and the myriad of other emotions through their voices. Add the excellent writing to this and you honestly can do nothing but marvel...

I am so impressed by this book. I see why this is seen as one of the best books of 2012. It is so easy to lose yourself in this book it's not even funny.


ONE IMPORTANT THING: DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVE AN AVERSION TO SWEAR WORDS. Do not listen in the company of children. The book is ripe with swear words at all but there are a number of sudden outburst and moments of anger simply filled with rampant curse words.

Gone Goes in a Different Direction

In Gone Girl a wife is missing. Having been immersed in so many mystery books and television plots you usually go with the strategy of who is the least likely suspect as a mystery unfolds. I used that strategy in the first part of this book as the author withholds vital information as to what is really going on. That made this a mildly interesting book and it would have remained that way if the book had ended on this plot point.

In the second part my prediction was confirmed but then something funny happened. The book went in a totally unanticipated direction. Now, I was hooked and totally absorbed. I could see possibly how this would end but did not care because this journey was getting so fascinating. Little did I know that there was going to be a couple more surprises in this richly entertaining mystery.

All of you jaded mystery readers and viewers are in for a treat with this book.

Sick and Sicker

I was intrigued by the reviews of this book and with all the hype I found myself wondering throughout the first half what the fuss was about. It seemed a little boring. The second half made up for the slow beginning, in fact I almost wanted to go back and listen to the first part again to see what I may have missed. My advice is to pay attention to the beginning and it will evolve. It was the perfect twisted story of two twisted people that truly deserved each other. It certainly keep me listening to see what bizarre thing would happen next. The narrators were excellent. Definately a case of sick and sicker!!!

Wow. Just....wow.

I should say that for the first section of listening I almost gave up. Things seemed inevitable and just plain depressing. But boy am I glad I stayed with it!

Both performances were great, but Julian Whelan was much more than that. I fell in love with her character and found her completely believable. This was a difficult, complex character to pull off.

Not since Presumed Innocent has a mystery novel been so intriguing.

"Somethin' Wicked This Way Comes"

I could not understand why the readers' ratings for this book was lingering at 3 for days, but eventually I did. The first part was intriguing with the assemble cast of Benson & Stabler, Nancy Grace and Mark Geragos - though not by these names. I loved it.

If part 1 was intriguing, then part 2 was atomic (enough said). The book was flip entirely on its head leaving the reader off-balance. I loved that too.

Then there was part 3, I hated it. If the intention of Gillian Flynn was to elicit a strong reaction from her reader then she succeed, but I would have prefered she did it another way. To say what I didn't like would be to give too much away, so I won't .

If you are a fan of demented, twisted and psycho this book is a definite must read. The two main characters Nick and Amy are multi-faceted (that's putting it gently). They are flawed (gently), but human (barely). The toxic relationship between these 2 are broken up by more relatable characters like Go, Nick's twin sister and Boney, a lead detective on the case. What I also found fascinating was the 24/7 news cycle that we live in where sound-bites and tv ratings control what is truth, and journalists do not simply report the news, but tell you what the truth is without the benefit of a trial, or due process. It should really be a cautionary tale.