Initial Response
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENDING?!?

GILLIAN FLYNN YOU ARE A WICKED, WICKED WOMAN.

So many plot twists. Although, admittedly, this plot was quite disturbing.

Second book of the year, how are the rest going to compete after two cracking reads?

Review
Gone Girl is a book I have heard about for a long time, I witnessed the hype of the release, the hype of the film, and still did not pick it up. Weirdly, I managed to avoid any kind of spoilers (I seem to have a good knack for that), which I definitely think boosted my enjoyment. However, I have come to weird conclusion, that this is not the kind of book you can enjoy. It's fantastically written, engaging, the characters are warped beyond belief, and it's definitely something you should read. But, to say I enjoyed this book may be to admit I'm a little disturbed because by the end, this book had honestly disturbed me. It was unnerving that somebody could create such a tale and make the people seem so normal and relate-able, that this was a stereotypical family. This is not the crime series CSI you watch on TV that quite often seems far from realistic, this was home grown, home plotted crime.

Still, Gone Girl is a fantastic read, mainly because of the characters and the depth they are explored in. There are so many dimensions to their characters and at many points I felt myself liking them and rooting for them. However, Flynn always had another twist round the corner to throw in and make you change your mind about them. So I had a very love-hate relationship with both Amy and Nick. I began the novel liking both of them, neither of them, admittedly, were perfect, but I liked them. By the end of the novel I could not really like either of them. They both unsettled me. The characters also directly interact with the reader with their narrative which made it even more unsettling because it felt like they were addressing you throughout the entire novel.

The plot of Gone Girl seems spectacularly simple to begin with, it follows simply the journey of a woman who has gone missing, Amy, or possibly been even murdered. And whilst the novel is not particularly fast-paced, it's gripping and well-thought out. I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read it, but Gillian Flynn is really a master with her writing style.

Overall, I can definitely understand why Gone Girl has such a high profile. On one hand, it's entirely deserved, on the other, why do people actually enjoy it? Still, give it a read, you might discover something about yourself, and probably unsettle yourself in the process! ;)

I on the other hand, will be finding time to further my 'interest' with this book and watch the film and see how well it matches up to the novel. Although, I do expect to be disappointed, because books are always better!