Kim Foster
about . books . blog . events . contact

Book Club: Gone Girl

gone-girlI’ve been meaning to do this for a while–write a review of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. But as I’ve said before, I barely have time to brush my teeth on a regular basis, let alone write book reviews…so I typically reserve this activity for the books that make the greatest impact on me.

And frankly, this book rocked my world. There were so many things I loved about it: the twisty, crooked plot, the edgy narrative, the way Flynn manipulated and played with her readers–toying with our sympathies, and then switching things up, making us doubt everything. And then back again.

She skilfully alternated the point-of-view narrator, between the distinctive voices of husband and wife. A fabulous device for creating suspense, here, particularly as each narrator proved to be highly unreliable. It was a tightly plotted story, beautifully woven together–and came together as an intentional, intricate whole.

But beyond being a suspenseful page turner, Gone Girl was an exploration of some fascinating themes: marriage and the concept of falling in and out of love; the question of how much we can truly know another person…and other, darker themes: sociopathy, betrayal, and the extremes of vengeance.

I have the impression Gillian Flynn would be the coolest person in the room, wherever she goes. I would love to buy her a cocktail and see how her mind works for a little while. I would particularly love to pick her brain over her writing process; what was her system for pulling all those plot threads together? How did those characters evolve and develop as she wrote?

A review of Gone Girl would be incomplete without mention of the ending; there’s been quite a brouhaha over that, and not everyone loved it. No worries–no spoilers here. I’ll just say that I, for one, thought the ending was exactly right.

So tell me: did you read Gone Girl? What did you think?

See previous book club posts:

One Response to “Book Club: Gone Girl”

Leave a Reply

Kim

Kim Foster writes YA and adult books about thieves, spies, and assassins. (Read More)

Join the Newsletter

Recent Posts

Instagram

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

Categories

Archives