YOUth Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a thriller novel that follows Amy and Nick, a married couple who are both writers living in New York. During the 2009 recession they both lose their jobs and move to

Nick’s hometown in Missouri. Nick and Amy grow to resent each other overtime, then one day Nick returns home on his and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary to find Amy missing from their home. Nick is a suspect for Amy’s murder and is interrogated by detectives despite claiming to be innocent, the media and America grow to believe Nick is guilty due to his lack of emotion in response to his wife’s disappearance. As the novel progresses the truthfulness of Nick is questioned as it is revealed that he is an unreliable narrator and may be lying about the state of his relationship with Amy.

Gone Girl was a novel I couldn’t put down. The suspense of this novel kept it extremely interesting and riveting without getting stale and made me consider whether the characters were being truthful or deceitful as more pieces to Amy’s disappearance are uncovered. The style of the novel helped contribute to its suspense, both Amy and Nick have very distinct ways of speaking which make them both feel very unique and three-dimensional as characters. Throughout the novel diary entries from Amy clue in the reader into her perspective of things, this is used to great effect as it makes the reader question Nick even more. I would definitely recommend Gone Girl to anyone that enjoys suspenseful novels.

-Aiden