So, I finally went to see Gone Girl last night and oh my goodness it is messed up, twisted good.  With some very minor interpretations and not too much in-depth charactertization of one or two of the key players, the movie is a masterful version of the outstanding best seller book.  Rosamund Pike is outstandingly disturbing in her portrayal of the main character, Amy Dunne.  Ben Affleck could not have been cast better as the slightly weak and pathetic husband, Nick, however, one of my favorite characters is Desi played by Neil Patrick Harris.  This movie is grossly fantastic and a MUST SEE!!!!

Instead of going indepth into the movie, which I dont want to do for anyone who has not read the book, I am reattaching my original review of the book below.  

There are those books that quietly build up momentum through word of mouth or one good review on Amazon that gets forwarded on from one friend to another, and then there are books that literally explode onto the Book Club scene and the talk of that book goes completely viral.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is one of those books.  I think it hit the Book Club world so hard because you just cannot help but want to talk about the dysfunctional, completely dislikable main characters of the book, but also the crazy twists and turns this book takes you on.

I had my book club last Friday and I was so desperate to talk about the book, I even told one of my friends that I had contemplated actually taking a day off work just to finish reading it.  Instead, I stayed up until 2.45am and bounded into work the next day eager for book club that afternoon.  It wasn’t hard to keep reading as this book is unputdownable!!! 

It is tough to tell you too much about this book without giving anything away and I would not want to spoil it as I want everyone to read it and be at the place I was when I finished it, which was a compulsion to talk about it with anyone that would listen.

Gone Girl is a story about a woman who goes missing under suspicious circumstances and the prime suspect is the husband.  As with these types of sensational stories, it gets picked up by the press and TV with very Nancy Grace’esq results and the husband is guilty before he has even gone on trial. 

The main characters, Nick and Amy Dunne have what seems to be the perfect marriage until both of them lose their jobs as journalists in New York City.  Nick’s mother becomes ill, forcing them to move back to his home of Hannibal, Missouri to look after her. 

The book alternates between Nick and Amy telling their own stories, some stories are current and some are memoirs of Amy’s recent past, which changes drastically in book two (there are 3 books to the story.)  Book Two had me wanting to pick up the phone to a friend immediately, while screaming “oh my god, did you get to book two!!!!!”

One of the many things that makes this book so compelling is that you really do struggle with who to root for.  What is seemingly a perfect marriage is mired down in absolute ugliness and deceit from both the husband and wife and you really don’t care for either of them, but you have a need to want it finalized with the “right” ending.  Whatever that may be for the reader.  There were different perspectives from the group in our book club.  I was satisfied that there was an ending after the ending in my mind.

There are a couple of things I believe I can share without ruining the story about the main characters themselves, which makes them hugely complex, especially Amy.  Amy’s parents are very wealthy child psychologists who made their money from writing books called “Amazing Amy,” which dealt with the many morale issues of being a young girl.  This had a big effect on Amy growing up and being “Amazing Amy” herself.  Their money ultimately runs out and they have to ask Amy for some her inheritance back.

Every year on their anniversary Amy puts together a treasure hunt for her husband, where he has to follow clues to the recent past in order to reach the treasure.  Their fifth year anniversary plays heavily into the story as not only is there a treasure hunt left for him, it is the day his wife goes missing.

Nick is a good looking narcissist that has always gotten away with everything just by flashing a perfect smile, but underneath, he is no more than a silly boy, who I did like at first, not so much as I read on.

There are other key characters in the book that may or may not be involved in Amy’s disappearance from Nick’s sister, Go, who stands by him no matter what she believes he did.  Desi, the love sick and slightly nuts ex-boyfriend of Amy and Nick’s father who has Alzheimers and a venomous dislike for Amy.

This book is suspenseful, creepy, gritty and just down right good.  Read it, talk about it, get angry about it… ultimately you will not be disappointed with this read. 

What did you think of Gone Girl?