Book of the Week: Gone Girl

"There's something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold."

I would just like to start this post by saying that I'm going to have to have a little bit of a rethink with this book of the week malarky. When I started this blog, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to write about one of my favourite reads on a weekly basis. I have now realised, however, that once a week is actually quite frequent, and I'm already struggling. At the rate I'm going, I'll have got through them all in a month or two, and then what would I do?! So instead, I've decided to shake things up a little, reviewing recent reads, what I have liked and disliked in past months, and I'll throw in a few choice morsels every now and then to keep you on your toes. Sound good? Great. Off we go.

So now that I've harped on about it, the first of my recent reads isn't actually all that recent. Never mind, eh? It's Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it's brilliant. It was all anyone could talk about at the beginning of the year (aside from Fifty Shades of Grey, but we'll forgive ourselves for that momentary lapse in judgement, shall we?) and for good reason. Flynn's third novel, and soon to be first movie - exciting - tells the story of Nick and his wife, Amy, who disappears suspiciously on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. Dubbed 'thriller of the year' by The Observer, the novel is jam packed with twists, turns and edge of your seat moments. Although I had a couple of issues with the story, the good heftily outweighs the bad, making it one of the best thrillers I have ever read.

Now, to begin with, I should warn you that this one's quite a slow starter, but don't let that deter you, it gets really good! The twists are so unexpected and the plot so intelligent that, trust me, you'll be glad you stuck with it. It's difficult to say too much about what I liked in particular without giving the game away, and although I'm sure most of you will have read it or heard about it, I'm still wary of spoiling it for someone. Let's just say that the structure of the novel gives it one hell of a twist, and lends itself immensely to the reading experience. I'll leave it there. If you've read it, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, where have you been?! Get reading, sunshine.

I also admire the way Flynn writes, and how she constructs her characters. Everything is very real with her novels. There's no air of glamour to any of it, and the characters are all very flawed, to the point where if I met them in real life, I'd think they were terrible people, but somehow Flynn manages to make sympathetic characters out of them. As for the story itself, it's all quite gritty - financial strains on a marriage, media manipulation, none of it is particularly romantic, and I think the story that she tells is perfectly suited to her writing style, which I love. It can be quite melancholy at times, very dry and pithy at others, but overall, very gripping and engrossing. Every element of the story sucks you in, and you'll probably find yourself missing appointments, or reading until dawn and wandering bleary eyed and exhausted into work the next day. In fact, you might want to wait until you've got a sizeable chunk of free time before you pick this up.

One thing I didn't like about the book was the ending. I hated it. I don't know how everybody else felt about it, but no. It was all wrong. Obviously I'm not going to tell you what I didn't like about it, as I have a sneaky suspicion that that might fall into the category of spoilers, but if you have read it, send me a cheeky message, I'd love to know what you thought about it!

Overall, a fantastic read, chock full of shocks and twists. I loved it, and it's not often I say that about a thriller, I can assure you. I'm more of a Hazza P kinda gal, but Gone Girl had me hooked. I've also read Flynn's two other novels, and I would recommend both, particularly Dark Places, which has a kind of Amityville Horror vibe to it. However, if I'm perfectly honest, neither are as good as this one. Read it. You'll love it.

Have you read Gone Girl? Are you a fan of Gillian Flynn? What is your favourite thriller? Let me know!