The fact that I bought a paperback copy of Gone Girl after reading its ebook version is really a testament that the novel should be the one to go in the treasure chest. Gone Girl is the first Gillian Flynn book I have read a year ago, and after that I have been wanting for more. I don’t know how to start this; the book is so twisted I am lost for words. Having read all of Flynn’s books, I could say that Gone Girl is her best yet, probably a magnum opus, and definitely the best psychological thriller in the contemporary scene so far.
Gone Girl possesses the familiar Gillian Flynn power that’s going to chill readers to the bones. And why not? It is so unsettling and cynical that you would begin to wonder if the ones you love are those you think they really are. Once you turn the first page and read what Nick Dunne thinks of his wife’s head, you are in a creepy, thrilling ride of your life.
SYNOPSIS
The gripping story revolves around the troubled marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne, two New York journalists who ended up living in Nick’s depressing hometown North Carthage after losing their writing jobs. Amy, who has been raised pampered and trust-funded as a Manhattan socialite, detests their ordeal, much more their rented McMansion that Nick chose for them to live in. Even so, Nick still managed to open a bar with his twin sister Margo using Amy’s trust fund money.
Everything becomes hellish on the day of the couple’s fifth year anniversary when Amy suddenly turns missing with traces of murder found in their McMansion kitchen. Nick, who came home after a quick beach stroll early that morning, finds himself in the middle of a murder accusation. All pieces of evidence lead back to him, including Amy’s diary that Nick wasn’t aware his wife had all the time.
The plot then progresses as Nick tries to clear his name and win the public’s heart. But Nick turns out to be a poor liar, who lives a double life and pretends that everything is fine throughout their marriage. Suddenly, a series of twists and turns starts to prevail and there seems to be no way of telling who is really saying the truth. Is Amy really murdered? Does Nick have something to do with it? What’s really the motive of the New York sweetheart’s sudden disappearance?
ANALYSIS
Nick and Amy Dunne are not your stereotypical troubled couple. Yes, they might appear as one at first, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. And that’s how Gillian Flynn crafted two deep, complex main characters in this chilling third novel. As readers are thrown back and forth between Nick’s narrative and Amy’s diary entries prior to her disappearance, I was led to believe in things that might really have not happened after all. Something happens and everything I knew changes in just a flash. They are the perfect definition of unreliable narrators, something that Gillian Flynn has apparently mastered and applied to her excruciatingly twisted protagonists’ inner monologues.
If Agatha Christie were alive, Gillian Flynn would have given Agatha a run for her money. But of course, Agatha is Agatha, and Gillian has her own way of presenting her narrative. What makes Gone Girl and her other books so dangerous and delicious to read is her tense prose, written through her irresistible, razor sharp wit. She’s a good architect when it comes to shaping the entirety of her story, shepherding us to the unpredictability of its dark corners. There are a good many crime writers out there, but not one has come close to Gillian’s style of writing. She sure doesn’t disappoint when it comes to presenting the savage and toxic side of the human psyche.
If you ever decide to jump on the bandwagon of Gone Girl fanatics, I recommend that you read the book when you are not alone because it’s going to scare you in more ways than one. But I assure you, while the fright lingers inside you, there’s going to be no intention on your side to put it down.
Rating:
, a maroon telephone, a cushy maroon sofa, a soft mattress, a stove, an unlimited water supply, and a tall shelf filled with my mother’s books and literature. Other than those mentioned, I found other things in our house insignificant.</p>
<p>As I stood in the centre of our former rickety dwelling as an adult, everything was so small that I could even touch the wooden beams attached horizontally below the ceiling. I felt like the giant Alice after she ate the cake that says “EAT ME” written on it in currants. I guess for a seven-year old child, that rickety shack is her kingdom.</p>
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<h3>I guess for a seven-year old child, that rickety shack is her kingdom.</h3>
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<p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151018055942/http://www.amazon.com/The-Ocean-End-Lane-Novel/dp/0062255665" target="_blank">The Ocean at the End of the Lane</a> by <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20151018055942/http://www.neilgaiman.com/" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman</a> hits close to home. This is why I’m going to take this book review rather personally.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-169" src="https://inkypress.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-1-e1371926929624.jpg?w=300" alt="ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-1-e1371926929624" width="300" height="287" /></p>
<h2>Synopsis</h2>
<p>The novel begins with our nameless protagonist returning to his childhood home in Sussex, England to attend a funeral. The deceased was never identified, but clues suggest it was the protagonist’s father.</p>
<p>He finds himself driving in a little country lane of his childhood, where he soon caught vague memories of his past decades ago. There he follows the road toward the Hempstock farm, to which a significant part of his childhood took place. He follows a trail to a duck pond near the Hempstock residence, whereupon everything from his fantastic past becomes all clear to him.</p>
<p>The story now jumps to the days when the man was only a bookish and lonely seven-year old boy, who witnessed the discovery of a suicide’s corpse; the man was a boarder in their home who drove off near the Hempstock farm to take away his life in the boy’s family car. The Hempstocks, who live nearby, take the boy in for a few hours and feed him. There, he strikes a friendly relationship with the eleven-year old Lettie Hempstock, her mother Ginnie and her grandmother Old Mrs. Hempstock- all belong to a seemingly odd family.</p>
<p>The duck pond is called, as Lettie insists, the ocean. For small kids, that really makes some sense. Anyone who has returned to a childhood home knows how small everything seems now, how enormous everything seemed then.</p>
<p>The immense struggle started when the boy accidentally released ancient evil entities in the process of banishing them. The most evil of those forces becomes the boy’s nanny named Ursula Monkton. The only way the boy could destroy the monster that is Ursula is to seek help from the powerful Hempstocks.</p>
<h2>Analysis</h2>
<p>Neil Gaiman captured the wide-eyed views of every child at such young age. The fright, the feeling of helplessness, the naivety: all of which drew the boy into adventures beyond comprehension and real-world logic.</p>
<p>The out of this world occurrences are hauntingly familiar from our real-life childhood, at the time when our minds lived somewhere in Neverland rather than on Earth. Those were the years that our innocence was passive enough to question adult whims and decisions. We’re almost always unable to control the misery of being powerless, that even the sight of our fathers brandishing a belt terrified us.</p>
<p>It might make sense to think that the events and characters in fairy tales symbolise facets of real life. However, this isn’t always the case for everyone. These tales bear their own meanings that echo with universal experiences. The Ocean at the End of the Lane relates well with certain elements of childhood, especially for children who always get lost in books.</p>
<p>It’s easy to assume that the book is for kids, but The Ocean at the End of the Lane is targeted toward the adult audience (YA fans will enjoy it, too). The book is Gaiman’s way for us, adults, to re-evaluate our past and make sense of things we couldn’t fathom when we’re still naive.</p>
<p>Growing up without a sibling to share the joys and sorrows of life with, I often lost myself in the books neatly arranged in the tall bookshelf of my humble childhood home. A long time ago, that bookshelf was so high I had to tiptoe to reach the paperback novels on top. Once upon a time, for a little while, all my fears, helplessness, and misery got lost somewhere we now know as the “imagination”.</p>
<p>As an adult, like the man in the book, I’m charged with a sense of self-knowledge that will carry me through the years. Like him, I was reminded that my life today was shaped by my childhood experiences. No matter how small things were in the past, there’s an infinite possibility to grow. Looking back to our erstwhile life, there will always be the realisation of how far and big we all have become.</p>
<p><strong>Rating: <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-168" src="https://inkypress.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/4stars_xpuh54.png" alt="4stars_xpuh54" width="93" height="17" /></strong></p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”</em></strong></p></blockquote>
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“There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.”
Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn
ISBN: 978-0307588364
Published: June 2012, Crown Publishing Group
Target Audience: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
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