return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
   Reader reviews of Gone Girl

Read what people think about Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and write your own review.

Gone Girl

Gone Girl
A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
Hardcover: Jun 2012,
432 pages.

Publication information
Author Information
Critics' Opinion:   
Readers' Rating:  
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book
Page 1 of 2 There are currently 9 reviews
for Gone Girl
Select your view:
Order Reviews by:
Click Here To Write Your Own Review
Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Cloggie Downunder
witty, scary, funny, brilliant
Gone Girl is the third novel by American author, Gillian Flynn. “She was the girl that every girl wanted to be: beautiful, brilliant, inspiring and very wealthy. He was the guy that all men admired: handsome, funny, bright and charming. But on July fifth, their seemingly perfect world came crashing in when Amy Elliott Dunne disappeared on their fifth wedding anniversary.” Flynn alternates narrations from husband Nick Dunne starting the day of the disappearance with diary entries by Amy Elliott Dunne starting when she first met Nick, and later, narrations by Amy, to gradually lead the reader through a tense, clever plot with some breathtaking twists and turns. Along the way, she touches on the power of TV and social media, the influence of good (and bad) parenting and whether anyone can really know their spouse. With plenty of black humour, Gone Girl is witty, scary, funny and brilliant.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by CWWJ
A savage disappointment
What a waste of a clearly skilled writer's talent. To destroy a creepy, suspenseful novel with such an awful ending is simply unforgiveable. In spite of its dreadfully illogical plot, Gone Girl was a page-turner until we turn the last page, when the reader must say "What???" A savage disappointment!

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Vivian Harrington
Mind Candy
Gone Girl is the break out novel by Gillian Flynn that has received a significant amount of press and adulation since it was published last summer. Gone Girl is what I term “mind candy”, a novel of suspense that also causes one to suspend all concept of reality. +

Gone Girl is written in three parts and attempts to portray the dark side of human nature in the psychological dysfunction of marital relationship after the wife disappears on the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary.

Amy Elliott and Nick Dunn met, courted and married in New York City. Amy came from a background of privilege and some notoriety as her parents had authored a series of books about “Amazing Amy”, which chronicled an idealized Amy through her childhood and school years. Nick grew up the only son of a middle class family in Middle America.

After Amy disappears, suspicion falls on Nick, because as the husband, he is the most likely suspect.

This was a quick read and I found the first half of the book to be a suspenseful page-turner. I like Ms. Flynn’s writing style. It flows well and I plan to read one of her earlier novels. However, none of the characters in this book are appealing. None are likeable. I felt no empathy for any of the persons portrayed.

By the time I was into the second half of the book, I predicted where the narrative was going and it lost me. While it was clever and clear that Ms. Flynn had conducted some research on sociopathic personalities, the story became too contrived, too convoluted, well beyond the most outrageous headlines of tabloid news. (except maybe “Batboy”). I’ve worked in insurance claims for more than 30 years and have seen a lot of things that one just could not make up. But, Gone Girl left me shaking my head.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Becky H
Gone Girl
From the moment Nick announces he has lied 10 times, you will wonder! When did he lie? Is he telling you a lie now? Is Amy telling the truth? Is Amy really dead? Has she been kidnapped? By whom? Who is the “bad guy? Amy? Nick? Go? Maribeth and Rand? Anyone of a several other characters? Is there a “good guy?”

Well written and entirely plausible, Gone Girl will keep you guessing to the end. Book groups will find a wealth of topics for discussion – family, siblings, lawyers, divorce, murder, friendship, mental health, marriage, fame, wealth – among others.
Mystery fans and those who prefer love stories or family dramas will find something to love in this psychological mystery.

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by techeditor
The end should be rewritten.
Right up to the second-from-last page GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn should be rated 5. Every page of the book builds more and more tension. It really is the best kind of book: unputdownable.

But the end: Other reviewers have said that it comes as a surprise. True. But I didn't like it. It is as if Flynn couldn't think of an end to the story so just stopped.

The end should be rewritten.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Sunny
What a Page-Turner!
I couldn't put this down...a great psychological thriller while at the same time a pretty darn accurate portrayal of the complexities of marriage and male/female relationships. Does anyone really know anyone? Great book! I finished it and immediately went looking for other books by the same author.
  1 2   next »

Lists of books with similar themes


Read-Alikes


Other books by Gillian Flynn
Buy This Book:

Become a Member
Click Here
Editor's Choice
  •  May 18 
  •  May 16 
  •  May 15 
The Woman Upstairs
Claire Messud

The Woman Upstairs Jacket

The riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own.
How to Create the Perfect Wife
Wendy Moore

How to Create the Perfect Wife Jacket

Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Happier Endings
Erica Brown

Happier Endings Jacket

A wise and affirming meditation on living fully and preparing for death, written by a highly regarded spiritual teacher.
Click Here
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Jewish Young Adult Books That Are Not About The Holocaust
Books to Give This Mother's Day
A Short History of Chechnya
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight... read more
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on... read more
The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag
Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Half the Sky
Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn
2. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
William Kamkwamba
3. Because of Winn-Dixie
Kate DiCamillo
4. Eagle Strike
Anthony Horowitz
5. Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
More...
Book Club Recommendations
The Gods of Gotham
by Lyndsay Faye
Paperback (Mar/13)
Forgotten Country
by Catherine Chung
Paperback (Mar/13)
Philida
by André Brink
Paperback (Feb/13)
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Hardback (Jun/12)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Sisterhood
by Helen Bryan
Four Stars            (Apr/13)
A Dual Inheritance
by Joanna Hershon
Four Stars            (May/13)
The Laws of Gravity
by Liz Rosenberg
4.5 Stars            (May/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing (May 16 2013)
In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Do you mainly read newly published or older books?
Mainly newer books
Mainly older books
A mix of new and old books
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters
Bring Up the Bodies

Online Book Club
More about
Five Days
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
The Pigeon Pie Mystery


Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"I I M B T Give T T R"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Menna van Praag
Erica Brown
Helga Weiss
Kate Morton
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us