4/5 pineapples

Gone Girl Cover

After all the rave reviews, I assumed this was going to be the best. Book. Ever. But you know what they say when you assume...

Okay, so this wasn't the best book ever but it was still pretty great and maybe my expectations are just too high (I'm a picky book person). Gillian Flynn is an amazing writer and I enjoyed how much she twisted my mind as I read Gone Girl. There's no clear "bad" and "good" involved, and that's just what I like about it. Flynn has created a very unconventional novel, one where you never know where to place your alliances and who to trust (spoiler: no one). I liked how she kept me on my toes, especially after the first section.

The characters are also fantastic. You can tell Flynn knows Nick and Amy very, very well, and she used them to create some of the richest characters I've seen in a recent novel. I'm a huge fan of characters, and they often make or break a book for me. I think it's the people Flynn has imagined that made reading this go so smoothly, and I felt invested in their lives. Nick and Amy, while dramatized, are completely realistic; just like real humans, they have flaws.

But of course, Gone Girl also had a few flaws itself for my reading preferences. The drama could be a bit much, and sometimes I rolled my eyes at a scene. There were also a few "twists" I saw coming from a mile away (but others that shocked me very much). Most importantly, it's not a book that's changed my world in any way. To get five pineapples, I'm expecting a book to make me think about my own life or the real world differently; something that inspires thought. Something that goes deeper than an entertaining read. This is not one of those books.

Long Story Short: Gone Girl is worth a read. If you have a weekend or some travel time to sit down with a book, this is an excellent choice. Flynn knows how to draw you in and create really developed, intense characters that keep you turning pages. It's more than a beach read, but not quite literary canon status. Most importantly, Flynn is an extremely talented writer and for that I would read her again.

You can find more reviews and details for Gone Girl on Goodreads, Amazon, Allison Anderson's post, or Catch the Lune's review.

What do you think of Gone Girl? Any good books I should look into this summer?