Sunday, July 22, 2012

A killer thriller: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Over the past few weeks, I kept seeing rave reviews  (Salon, NY Times,The Age) of Gillian Flynn’s new thriller Gone Girl.

Let me say that the reviews are right: this is rave worthy book.

It's a smart,funny and thrilling "who dunnit". 

It’s also difficult to review properly because there are some brilliant and slightly outrageous plot twists that can't be revealed.

In a clever but deceptively simple narrative structure, Gone Girl begins with the voice of Nick, an all American man, whose marriage to Amy seems to be in trouble.

Amy then goes missing. Each chapter alternates between Amy and Nick and between past and present.

The story spirals into a thrilling cat and mouse game between husband and wife. And ultimately between author and reader, as each reveal brings more uncertainty to the story and shifting alliances.

Needless to say the writing is sharp and  the characters well developed and believable.

This is my favourite type of thriller: it hooks you in straight away and you know you can’t stop reading until the finish.

A deliciously enjoyable read that stays in your head for a bit. In fact I needed a couple of days to properly recover from it all!