Gone Girl first came to my notice in a number of Best of 2012 blogging lists. I must read that, I thought, expecting to be completely blown away by it.
Well, it didn’t happen – at least not until the second half. After the twist, which, of course, I can’t tell you about.
So I find myself n a bit of a dilemma. I can tell you that the first half was spoiled for me by
the wife’s voice. It just didn’t feel credible. Something didn’t add up; there was a whole subtext missing. And that was true as became clear in the second half. After that I couldn’t stop reading.
This is the story of an utterly miserable marriage, of a power struggle, emotional blackmail and the basest manipulation. The battle of the sexes was never uglier, though it is a pretty uneven fight. When one of the participants is a fully-fledged sociopath, there can only one winner.
On another level the author is also manipulating the reader through many, many lies of omission. My sympathies waxed and waned towards both husband and wife, and at one point I decided they deserved each other. But then two unconscionable events occurred and my sympath-o-meter swung decisively to one side.
I realise this “review” is on the cryptic side. Deliberately so. Those who have read it will understand. I don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t as the plot is utterly sensational and the smallest detail is hugely significant. But for the sake of my memory, I’m ending with a clue.
The Maiden caught me in the Wild,
Where I was dancing merrily;
She put me into her Cabinet,
And Lockd me up with a golden key.
(From The Crystal Cabinet, William Blake)
and an addition to my completist reading list!
Lizzy's Literary Life (Volume One) 
I’ve heard great things about this book too. All the reviews and praise just makes my mouth water. I can’t wait for this book to be available in our part of the world.
I too was underwhelmed by this book. That’s probably an issue of hype. Here’s my review, if you feel like reading it: http://wellreadfish.blogspot.com/2012/10/gone-girl.html
It wasn’t perfect, but I really enjoyed it – it was a great page-turning thriller of a read. I liked the way that sympathies chopped and changed, until …. can’t say, can I. 🙂
My book club discussed this novel last month. The majority loved it….disliked the first half as you mentioned. It took me three “tries” to finally finish it. Two of us had gone to Missouri University with Leslie Flynn, Gillian’s aunt, a lovely lady!I can’t place GONE GIRL in a “favorites” list.
Lizzy,
Between you and me, I can’t for the life of me imagine why this book was chosen. There were so many other books that were much, much more worthy, in my estimation. For me, it was an entertaining read, I suppose, but no more than that, no more than something to fill the time. As a literary achievement, it was NOT.
Enjoyed reading your thoughts about this book!
Judith
I found this book quite hard to get through and didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I’d expected to. It seems to be a bit of a Marmite book for most people.
I am one of eight people who wanted to drop-kick this book when I was done. Absolutely hated it. Given, I knew a lot about the plot going into it, which I think slowed the momentum down a lot and ruined some of the twists. I’m interested to try some of her other work. Sharp Objects, in particular.
I love this book. Thanks for sharing..
I loved this book, I thought it was a real page turner, clever constructed and with an interesting look at a relationship, with two characters you could really hate at times. Certainly has got people talking about books though.
I enjoy your blog posts, saved to my bookmarks!