the gone girl book review

Supported by

Books of The Times

The Lies That Buoy, Then Break a Marriage

Share full article

By Janet Maslin

May 29, 2012

Gillian Flynn’s ice-pick-sharp “Gone Girl” begins far too innocently by explaining how Nick and Amy Dunne celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary. Amy got up and started making crepes. Nick came into the kitchen, appreciating his wife’s effort but wondering why Amy was humming the theme song from “M*A*S*H.” You know, that “suicide is painless” thing.

“Well, hello, handsome,” Amy says to her husband.

“Bile and dread inched up my throat,” Nick recalls, although Ms. Flynn’s spectacularly sneaky novel does not explain that, not right away. Anyway, Nick leaves the house after breakfast. He heads to work. While he is gone, Amy disappears into thin air.

It almost requires a game board to show how Nick and Amy move through this book. They met at a party in Brooklyn and were momentarily smitten. (Move one step forward.) Eight months later they connected for real. They got married. (Another step forward.) Then Nick lost his job. (One step back.) So they had to move back to Nick’s hometown, North Carthage, Mo., which Amy hated. (Another step back.) In Missouri they had the kinds of fights, infidelity, money troubles and other noir-style problems that witnesses will remember now that Amy’s gone. (Nick, go to jail.)

Perhaps these sound like standard-issue crime story machinations. They’re not. They’re only the opening moves for the game Ms. Flynn has in mind, which is a two-sided contest in which Nick and Amy tell conflicting stories. Each addresses the reader: Nick in the present tense, and Amy by way of an italics-filled, giddily emotional diary about the marriage. Both Nick and Amy are extremely adept liars, and they lied to each other a lot. Now they will lie to you.

Nick’s narrative begins the book, and it illustrates how many different ways there are to dissemble. Like many a less clever unreliable narrator, Nick likes lies of omission. The reader has to figure this out very gradually, because Ms. Flynn is impressively cagey about which details she chooses to withhold.

But when the police come calling, Nick lies to them outright and even asks for the reader’s sympathy. A guy who recently increased his wife’s life insurance policy? Who has a hot temper? Who has a young and pretty girlfriend he’s been seeing on the sly? Being honest is simply not an option for him.

The invisible Amy can talk only about her past behavior. She began keeping the diary in 2005, and it describes the marriage as an emotional roller coaster. Even when the fights began, Amy went to elaborate efforts to be cheerful and boost her husband’s spirits, but she grew more and more worried as the marriage spiraled downward. Gee, she even reached the point of thinking she needed a gun.

An ordinary writer might think this a fully stocked pond. But Ms. Flynn, a former critic for Entertainment Weekly, is still just warming up. She has many peculiar details to add. Here are some about Amy: She is no ordinary New York girl. She is the daughter of parents who wrote a string of “Amazing Amy” books with an idealized version of their daughter as the heroine. Amy still remembers the stalkers she had as a child.

The books made Amy famous and her family rich. But their emphasis on perfectionism was more than a little creepy. The books even contained quizzes about what Amazing Amy would do under various circumstances, and Amy made up those quizzes herself.

As an adult, she still weirdly gave herself multiple-choice options when she married: Abducted Amy, stuck in North Carthage. North Carthage is right near Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain. (Move one step forward if you see how Tom Sawyer has been worked into “Gone Girl.” And not just because the Dunne house is on the Mississippi River.)

Amy was also either adorable or freaky enough to stage a treasure hunt for each wedding anniversary. One measure of Ms. Flynn’s diabolical finesse is the Rorschach test she has made out of each of Amy’s written clues. We have many chances to examine them before this book is over.

Then there are the potentially troubling things about Nick. He owns a bar with his twin sister. He used Amy’s money to finance the place but resents her for that. He has also taken a teaching job but still fumes about being fired by a magazine in New York. Although his temper does rage at times, he has a charming smile at others. Much to his disadvantage, Nick smiled winningly for the cameras while being questioned by the news media about his lost wife.

And Nick has a secret life that did not involve Amy. On the morning she vanished, he was off doing something that he is deeply ashamed of, and it is not revealed until late in the novel. Ms. Flynn’s idea for Nick’s biggest secret will be, for some readers, the most startling detail in a book that is full of terrific little touches.

“Gone Girl” is this author’s third novel, after “Sharp Objects” and “Dark Places.” “Dark Places,” in particular, drew attention from mystery aficionados, but “Gone Girl” is Ms. Flynn’s dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they’re hard to part with — even if, as in Amy’s case, they are already departed.

And if you have any doubts about whether Ms. Flynn measures up to Patricia Highsmith’s level of discreet malice, go back and look at the small details. Whatever you raced past on a first reading will look completely different the second time around.

By Gillian Flynn

419 pages. Crown Publishers. $25.

The Books of The Times review on May 30, about the novel “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn, misstated the name of the Missouri hometown of a main character named Nick. He is from North Carthage, not Carthage.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [email protected] . Learn more

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

Cher Turns Back Time: In the first volume of her memoir (which she hasn’t read), the singer and actress explores a difficult childhood, fraught marriage to Sonny Bono and how she found her voice.

Reinventing the Romance Comic: To fully understand Charles Burns’s remarkable graphic novel, “Final Cut,” you have to look closely at the way in which it was rendered .

Turning to ‘Healing Fiction’: Cozy, whimsical novels — often featuring magical cats — that have long been popular in Japan and Korea are taking off globally. Fans say they offer comfort during a chaotic time .

The Book Review Podcast: Each week, top authors and critics talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Member Login
Library Patron Login
Get a Free Issue of our Ezine! Claim

Summary and Reviews of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

BookBrowse Review:
Critics' Consensus:
Readers' Rating:
First Published:
Jun 5, 2012, 432 pages
Apr 2014, 432 pages

Literary Fiction
Mis. Ala. Ga.
Contemporary
Top Books of 2012
Publication Information
Write a Review
Buy This Book

About This Book

Book Club Questions

Book Summary

Marriage can be a real killer. Gillian Flynn, takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn, takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. As The Washington Post proclaimed, her work "draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction." Gone Girl 's toxic mix of sharp-edged wit with deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky 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? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister Margo at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was left in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet? Employing her trademark razor-sharp writing and assured psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Chapter One Nick Dunne The Day Of

When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it. Like a shiny, hard corn kernel or a riverbed fossil. She had what the Victorians would call finely shaped head. You could imagine the skull quite easily. I'd know her head anywhere. And what's inside it. I think of that too: her mind. Her brain, all those coils, and her thoughts shuttling through those coils like fast, frantic centipedes. 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...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

"Beyond the Book" articles
Free books to read and review (US only)
Find books by time period, setting & theme
Read-alike suggestions by book and author
Book club discussions
and much more!
Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
More about membership!

Media Reviews

Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

On finishing Gone Girl I immediately contacted my friends to insist they read it; it's one of those books that I simply couldn't wait to discuss with others. I found it to be an original, engaging mystery that kept me guessing throughout. It's the perfect novel for readers looking for fast-paced escapism... continued

(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs ).

Write your own review!

Beyond the Book

The missing.

According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center , 678,860 people were reported missing in 2011. The suspected cause of a disappearance was only recorded in about half of all cases. Of these, 3% were adults; 96% were juvenile runaways, about 1% were abducted by a non-custodial parent, and 0.1% abducted by a stranger. It should be noted that the police are required to alert the NCIC of any person under 21 who is missing, thus the NCIC stats should be a fairly accurate count of missing juveniles, but likely underestimate the number of adults who went missing, as those who were located within a short period of time were probably not reported to the NCIC. The vast majority of missing person cases are cleared each year. In fact, in ...

Read-Alikes

Genres & Themes

If you liked Gone Girl, try these:

Sometimes I Lie

by Alice Feeney

Published 2018

About this book

More by this author

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I'm in a coma. 2. My husband doesn't love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie.