Gone Girl: Gillian Flynn

"What are you thinking Amy?  The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer.  I suppose these questions stormcloud over ever marriage:  What are you thinking?  How are you feeling?  Who are you?  What have we done to each other?  What will we do?  Just how well can you ever know the person you love?  This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears.  The police immediately suspect Nick.  Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him.  He swears it isn't true.  A police examination of his computer shows strange searched.  He says they aren't his.  And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.  So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?  And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed?  In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war..."

I actually read this book in the matter of a couple of days while I was visiting my family out of state/housesitting/using the peace and quiet to finish writing my Master's thesis in early November of 2017, so I am, unfortunately, a little bit late on my review.  I swear I recall starting a review for this, but I cannot seem to locate it...  I heard such good things about this book (and the movie came out not too long ago), so I had been contemplating picking it up for awhile.  This trip seemed like as good a time as any -- especially when my younger cousin (15) was thrilled to see me reading it because it was a book she, too, loved.  (Part of the reason I read it so quickly was she wanted to watch the film version together after I'd finished the book...unfortunately, we couldn't find it on Netflix in order to do so...bummer.)

Anyhow, I feel like this review is going to be much shorter than my other recent reviews because I have to tread a VERY fine line between reviewing what I found to be so brilliant about this book, and not giving away any of the earth-shattering twists and brilliantly-written turns.  It's safe to say that I now understand why this is an award-winning book.  Flynn's knowledge and expertise in the field of the human mind was astonishing and her craftsmanship was spectacular.  There was never a boring moment.  Everything felt as if it was held together by invisible threads I couldn't fully see, nor did I completely comprehend them, but I could sense their presence...and I knew the culmination would be something epic.  I was not disappointed.

Nick and Amy - through her diary entries and accounts of her friends and family - were so deep and multi-faceted.  There were nuances and complexities that I could only fully appreciate after I closed the book and stared unseeingly off into the distance and contemplated what I'd just read.  This is a book that will leave you with aftershocks.  It will stay with you long after you've closed it.  It makes you question reality and just how well you (think) you know the people you love and with whom you surround yourself.  I am a firm believer that this is a mark of an excellent book:  when it stays with you and pops back into your consciousness every now and again.  It leaves an undeniable tattoo upon your soul.

I absolutely recommend this enthralling, disturbing, brilliant read.  Prepare yourself to be sucked right into this book and loathe to put it down until you've turned the last page.  This is a bit different from a majority of my other "for fun" reading material, but I'm so glad I branched out.  Enjoy!