Gone Girl: A Novel

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

All hype and all gimmick.

I finished this book mostly because I had to, and I have never wanted to burn a book more than I do now. The last time I felt this way about an assigned text was when I slogged through Atlas Shrugged in high school.

Scratch that. Not too long ago Defending Jacob inspired a similar book-burning feeling for about a week, but then it passed on. This book will soon follow.

The title Gone Girl should’ve been enough of a warning. Bestsellers that have gimmicky titles are often gimmicky themselves.

Anyhow. It started out slow and rambled on for about a hundred pages, and I was indifferent for the first half. Then it got a little interesting, though I stayed indifferent because, honestly, how involved can a reader be when the story is about a “first world problems” married couple who set out to ruin each others’ lives?

The title should’ve been First World Problems Girl.

[ETA
OK, I concede. The prose is actually not that bad, which is consistent with Flynn's style. She really does have a way with words, though not so much with story.