One caveat: if you've seen the movie, you don't really need to read the book, because Gillian Flynn also wrote the movie's screenplay and it captures the essence of the book. Another caveat: this is NOT a traditional thriller. Specifically, this book isn't one of those page turner novels where you stay up all night reading, but it's marketed that way, which is slightly misleading. Are there loads of twists and turns? Yeah, but the novel is more about a slow build up and the lead characters aren't the nicest of people, so it isn't a book that hooks you immediately.
The main reason why I gave this book 5 stars was because of Amy. Her character is phenomenal, a female counterpart to Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. She's a narcissistic psychopath bordering on misandrist, but her monologues contain within them insightful nuggets of truth. If you are to read nothing else in this entire book, read the first chapter of Part Two: Boy Meets Girl. Amy's infamous tirade against "Cool Girl" should honestly be required reading for everyone because of the sheer truth contained within it.
Here's the honest reason why Amy is EVERYTHING: I'm tired of lowkey psychotic male antiheros being put on pedestals. The idea that men can be flawed, terrible people and still be adored (some real life examples: Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Woody Allen) while women must be nice and considerate and accommodating at all times translates over into literary characters as well. Where are my female antiheroines who are morally gray and do terrible things? It's refreshing to meet a female character who is bitter, angry, and terrible and to be able to sympathize with her because the story is partially told from her perspective. Nick and the reader pass judgement on Amy, but Amy and the reader are allowed to pass judgment on Nick, too. We are allowed to see her rage and anger and psychopathy and sympathize with some bits of it, while side-eyeing others.
There's a whole bunch of other themes to discuss: our ability to blame others and rationalize all of our shortcomings, our insistence on maintaining pure images of ourselves to hide seediness underneath, the constant manipulation of public perception, and so much more. This book is amazing, like Amy herself. Read it, or watch the movie (it's truly one of the few instances where it's JUST as good as the book), and definitely check out the whole chapter with the "Cool Girl" monologue. That chapter is worthy of five stars alone.
Finally, publishing industry, give me more Amy. Strong women are not perfect women because perfect women are ultimately two dimensional. I want more flawed, messed up, cold, cruel, straight-up wrong female characters. Stop ONLY giving me nice, warm mother figures, Mary Sues, and Cool Girls. Let more Amy Elliots into the mix. Life is more interesting that way.