Gone Girl (Spoilers)

[TheEleventhHour]

I mentioned finishing Gone Girl in the Wednesday thread. I have so many feels about it and a few others said they'd be up for a discussion so I figured I'd start a thread!

[TheEleventhHour]

Alright, so I read the book in a day. We lost power in the storm Tuesday for 10 hours and I didn't put it down all day. I really like Gillian Flynn's writing. There were some plot twists that I guessed but how she wrote them was so much better than I could have even imagined. Has anyone read her other books? I liked Gone Girl so much I considered reading her others.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Ill put the rest of my thoughts under here!}So within a few pages all I could think was "Nick totally did it!" but then further into Amy's diaries something just wasn't matching up and I guessed she wasn't really dead. I was right but I could not have even the imagined the scope of her sociopathy! It just kept building and building. It was great. I loved all of the layers and the people throughout her life she messed with. I think it was the old BF she set up to look like a rapist who said to Nick "If she did this to me I can't imagine what she'd do to the guy she married".

My biggest feels though are coming from the ending. I HATED IT. I seriously pushed the next page button on my Kindle and saw the acknowledgement page and thought "Wait, what? I must of missed something!" I was so excited that Nick, Go, and Boney were meeting secretly to try to nail Amy down and send her to jail. And then she gets KTFU and Nick has to "do the right thing" except your wife slit a man's throat and purposely abused herself to look like a rape victim!!! Why do you want to be with this person?! Take that baby and RUN.

I'd be really interested to hear people's thoughts about the end. I can't really reconcile it after Amy became a murderer.

Ok, I am sure I have more but can't think of anything right this minute so I will leave it at that

[Unknown]

At first I was disappointed with the ending of GG, but after stewing on it for a few days I realized how good it actually was. I read Sharp Objects, and found it extremely disturbing, and now have no interest in ready anything else of hers.

[klongoria11]

I have read all of her books and enjoyed them all. GG was by far my favorite, but I also really enjoyed Dark Places. I just read they are doing a film adaptation of it as well.

[Irishcurls]

I really liked GG at the time, and then got sort of over it. I liked that it was a mindfuck and a page turner but I feel like the ending was just ridiculous.

I can't remember if I also read Dark Places or Sharp Objects--or maybe both?? I downloaded them after finishing GG because I was so taken with how "different" her writing is. I had gotten on a really annoying YA kick and needed something new. But man is she fucked up. Oh yeah, ok I read Dark Places too. Maybe I'll pick up Sharp Objects...I don't know.

[TheEleventhHour]

Unknown Yeah, I am definitely still stewing on the ending. Amy clearly felt that Nick's indiscretions with Andie should equal him not being happy so I get it from that point of view. Cheating is bad but he doesn't deserve to be punished his entire life, if that makes sense.

@enchanted True that nothing in the book indicated there was going to be any sort of happy ending considering it was one "Holy shit! I can't believe she did that!" after another. Amy was not going to let happy happen but I was still rooting for it!

klongoria11 I think I will probably try her others once I get through the books I am reading right now!

[TheEleventhHour]

Irishcurls Yes, total mind fuck, but then the ending made me feel like the author just gave up. I picture her being all "Hmm, I don't really feel like thinking of a way Nick and Boney could nail Amy so I just won't". But then I feel like maybe the ending was supposed to be deep, Amy getting the last word, and I just missed it.

I don't know what it says about me but hearing her books described as fucked up and disturbing totally make me want to read them

[Unknown]

It's been awhile since I read this, so some of my details are fuzzy. I remember getting the feeling that the whole book was Amy displaying her control over Nick, yet in the end he had the power because he didn't turn her in, and she would have to have known this. I just felt like they were both shitty in their own way (obviously Amy was way BSC), but they kind of deserved each other.

ETA: I never saw the movie, was it good?

[beebe918]

I enjoyed Gone Girl while I was reading it and Unknown I saw the movie and enjoyed that too, I thought it was really well done.

I remember thinking in the beginning of the book that maybe the crazy dad did it. I actually didn't mind the ending at all, it was totally unexpected and I like that in an ending.

All that being said I thought the book was really disturbing and do not want to read any of her other books.

[rocksforludo]

Like some mentioned, I really enjoyed reading it while I was reading it as there were plot twists that genuinely surprised me and I enjoyed having two unreliable viewpoints to wade through. I didn't like the ending at the time (and DH just finished it two days ago and I could tell when he was done because he yelled: "the fuck?!")

Specific thoughts on ending behind spoiler:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

The one thing I did realize about the ending is that it made me think about what the rest of their lives would be like: would Nick decide to steal the baby after it was born? Would they really stay together? How could you possibly share a house with someone that you could never trust for a second? If there was "happy" ending for Nick, then I wouldn't have put another second of thought into it. Amy's in jail, Nick's free, the end.

[Irishcurls]

I second the movie being well done. Ben Affleck doesn't do it for me but you do see his wang if you know where to look.

I just feel like the end made him as psychotic and codependent as her? And I didn't really see that in his character throughout the book at all, so I was sort of like "Gillian. You're drunk."

[TheEleventhHour]

rocksforludo Those are good points. We don't know for sure that he stayed. It certainly wasn't a clean or succinct ending! My mom hadn't read the book but had seen the movie and she knew when I was done because I just kept going "Wait? What?" over and over.

[aggiebug]

I seem to be in the minority in that I didn't like the book, and not just the ending but the book. I kept waiting to get sucked in or care about the outcome of the characters and I just never did. The ending seems to fit the book it just wasn't style.

[starsailor26]

I really enjoyed the book when I first read it and also wasn't happy with the ending. The more I thought about it though, I felt that it was the right ending for them. Neither of them were particularly good people, although Nick wasn't a sociopath, but I felt they sort of deserved each other.

SPOILER: Click to show

Nick stayed with Amy to keep the baby safe from Amy and her crazy. There was no way he was going to abandon his child with someone who was that cold and capable of murder. Maybe he didn't deserve to spend his life with someone like Amy for cheating, but she planned for everything including ways to keep him after all that happened.

Regarding Flynn's other books, I read Dark Places which is in some ways a much more twisted and darker story. I enjoyed it for the most part but it will be a while before I read Sharp Objects.

[peanutmuse]

The only thing I have to say about the book is that Gillian Flynn is damn lucky she was married before the book was published. Because I just can't picture a man being willing to date a woman who had that story brewing in her brain!

[peanutmuse]

Oh yes. Cheating and just being a general jerk is certainly bad. No question. Faking your death and framing someone, faking a rape, killing someone, impregnating yourself to keep a spouse -- that's just not even on the same playing field. She was beyond BSC.

ETA: There is definitely something to be said for men driving women to do crazy things. I've been there myself. But these are not your standard woman-scorned type behaviors, like slashing tires or burning the clothes of a douche bag boyfriend or husband. It takes a person without a conscience to do the types of things Amy did.

ETA2: To clarify, I have never slashed tires or burned clothes.

[TheEleventhHour]

peanutmuse Oh yeah, Amy is no question a sociopath. It is deep rooted behavior as seen with how she messed with other in her life over the years. It didn't come solely from being cheated on.

starsailor26 I definitely think Nick wanted to protect the baby but wouldn't it have made more sense to work on a way to get Amy behind bars for her crimes and then Nick have the baby? I just couldn't imagine sharing a life with someone like her!

[kmmd]

Yeah that book was messed up. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would but it was good. The ending was a shock and I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

I was thinking about reading Sharp Objects but it's not high on my list.

[runnergirl812]

I'll probably eventually read another book of hers. I enjoyed the book. It was good but sooo frustrating!! The ending made me mad at first, but I think it was just like the rest of the book. The usual ending would have been more satisfying but then I might not still have liked it either. I enjoyed the writing style, so I probably will read another.

[starsailor26]

Jan 30, 2015 20:28:08 GMT -5 TheEleventhHour said:

peanutmuse Oh yeah, Amy is no question a sociopath. It is deep rooted behavior as seen with how she messed with other in her life over the years. It didn't come solely from being cheated on.

starsailor26 I definitely think Nick wanted to protect the baby but wouldn't it have made more sense to work on a way to get Amy behind bars for her crimes and then Nick have the baby? I just couldn't imagine sharing a life with someone like her!

I suspect that Nick knew if he put Amy in jail she'd find a way to end the pregnancy or hurt the baby and it was what kept him from pursuing that route.

[Chrisse]

I don't really have any more to add, other than to agree with PPs. I loved the book, adored the book. ..only to feel like I was betrayed by it in the end. Maybe that was the point. If so, touché, GF.

[peanutmuse]

Jan 30, 2015 23:20:36 GMT -5 Cdnfroggy said:

I really disliked Amy's parents, they just rubbed me the wrong way I couldn't help but wonder if she would have turned out differently if she didn't have to compete with a fictionalized version of herself her whole life.

Cdnfroggy -- yeah, I think that was a pretty clear theme throughout the book.

[TheEleventhHour]

Cdnfroggy I definitely think her parents played a role in her psychology. I don't know that she'd be "normal" (for lack of a better word) if she had a different life growing up but I think her home life definitely amplified her BSC tendencies.

[peanutmuse]

Jan 31, 2015 0:10:17 GMT -5 @juliagulia said:

Does anyone think that maybe Nick had a weird attraction to the sociopath side of Amy? Clearly he liked a little drama and dysfunction and she is amazingly beautiful and as he tells it "out of his league". So maybe he got off a bit on the crazy? I mean I think he overall stayed to protect the baby but maybe there was just a little bit of him that thought he deserved her crazy or was addicted to it. He seemed to have low self esteem.

@juliagulia -- I totally think he did, he just realized he was in over his head when it was too late. Sociopaths can be extremely charismatic and people are drawn to them.

[TheEleventhHour]

Jan 31, 2015 13:57:31 GMT -5 peanutmuse said:

Jan 31, 2015 0:10:17 GMT -5 @juliagulia said:

Does anyone think that maybe Nick had a weird attraction to the sociopath side of Amy? Clearly he liked a little drama and dysfunction and she is amazingly beautiful and as he tells it "out of his league". So maybe he got off a bit on the crazy? I mean I think he overall stayed to protect the baby but maybe there was just a little bit of him that thought he deserved her crazy or was addicted to it. He seemed to have low self esteem.

@juliagulia -- I totally think he did, he just realized he was in over his head when it was too late. Sociopaths can be extremely charismatic and people are drawn to them.

Yeah, she definitely pulled him in and I think he excused a lot of her warning signs and by the time she revealed her very true self it was way too late and he was in way too deep.

The more I think about it the more I realize that Amy was too smart for Nick to ever find a way out. It is easy for me to say that Nick could just work with Boney to find something to put Amy behind bars and then take the baby but Amy not only covered her trail well she would do something crazy like kill the baby and pin it on Nick. He was stuck. 

[seamonster]

I didn't like the book or the ending. I kept waiting to be surprised or shocked, and nothing. I will admit that I never liked Amy, especially the fake diary Amy. I really wanted something bad to happen to fake diary Amy.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler -- thoughts on ending}
I think Nick is an idiot, but maybe he and Amy deserve each other. I was angry at his willingness to bring a child into the whole mess. I don't think that Amy would've not had the baby if he had walked away and there would've been a chance he could've gotten the kid away from Amy. No such luck now.

I think Amy was screwed up even without having a fictionalized version to compete against. She had all these dead sisters to compete against, whom I'm sure her parents created an idealized vision of what they would've been like if they'd lived. Terrible child psychologists.

[ceebug]

I don't think I have ever read a book where the two main characters are the antagonists. My main struggle was repressing my desire to root for a character. Neither Nick nor Amy were characters that I liked or wanted to have a happy ending.

I was so frustrated by he ending because of the baby. I didn't care if Amy or Nick had a happy ending, but I didn't think it was fair for the child to have such mentally unstable parents. They could be repeating the crazy cycle with their child.

[Irishcurls]

Feb 1, 2015 13:17:33 GMT -5 @yellowwallpaper12 said:

The ending ruined this book for me. I do give her a little credit, though, because I never saw that ending coming.

We rented the movie last night. It was well done. I thought the casting choices were perfect, especially NPH as Desi. Rosamund Pike did a great job playing Amazing BSC Amy.

Best part of the movie for me! 

[TheEleventhHour]

Feb 1, 2015 13:17:33 GMT -5 @yellowwallpaper12 said:

The ending ruined this book for me. I do give her a little credit, though, because I never saw that ending coming.

We rented the movie last night. It was well done. I thought the casting choices were perfect, especially NPH as Desi. Rosamund Pike did a great job playing Amazing BSC Amy.

I have heard NPH is great! I am really looking forward to seeing the movie. It should be in the RedBox sometimes next week!

[qlove1215]

I loved the ending. Blew my mind but any other end would have been disappointing. Like ceebug mentioned, the two main characters were antagonists but they were also protagonists at some point so I was too conflicted on my feelings for them for it to end with jail or murder for either. This ending still has my head spinning but I like it nonetheless.