GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn

I'm partway through this sick fuck of a book. I hate the characters, but love them, too.

Liked the book but hated the ending.
It's a good book. I didn't care for the ending, but I have to admit it was different. I kind of like that the author was willing to do that. It's supposed to be turned into a movie. Hollywood will probably fuck it up by hiring ann hathaway for the lead
I keep hearing about the disappointing ending and I'm almost there now - the book's been great so far.
The ending makes no sense and it is a total cheat. The plot makes little sense on closer inspection, too.
R2 -- I heard Reese Witherspoon? I have to admit that the snob in me admires Amy's nasty observations regarding the lower class folks she's dealt with. I feel bad for Nick, but damn he really brought a lot of it on himself!
OP
I read her first 2 books, but not this one. The endings on those were bad as well.
I liked the ending of the first one a lot. The second one was, indeed, cop-out-ish. Overall, I'm liking this book better than the second one.
OP
The ending of the book makes you think she ran out of steam and was out of ideas. Started off strong but just kind of petered out at the end.
David Fincher in talks to direct.
I LOVE the ending. Both got exactly what they deserve...
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Loved the book, the ending was kinda meh.
agree with R10 both of them so lacking psychologically amy farther along as a sociopath, he trailing along
Just finished the book - if I'd gotten the kind of ending I wanted/expected it would have been mundane and predictable and the book was anything but that, so although I would've liked a different outcome, the ending is exactly the way it should be.
Lena Dunham is trash. Why would you read this?
AnnE r2 AnnE!!! Remember my name (fame!) How can I live forever, how can I learn to fly (high!) if you don't fucking remember the correct spelling of my name? I am very famous bitch, get it right!
AnnE%20H.
A fast read with some great lines... [quote]I can't recall a single amazing thing that I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A fucking commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blase: Seeeen it. I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: the secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore. I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-earred scripts. I hated the ending too. It'll be interesting to see what Fincher does with it, if he directs. I hope Reese Witherspoon doesn't play Amy; she isn't right for the part (so of course she will).
Gwyneth paltrow would be perfect for Amy.
Charlize Theron would be a great Amy
When I was reading the book I totally thought of Charlize in the role. I think Goop might do a good job too. Reese is simply not a NYC ice queen and doesn't have the right look/feel for the part. Unfortunately I think she's definitely attached to this one.
The most hated book I have ever finished. Gillian Flynn owes me $25 and 10 hours of my time.
I would like to see Reese as Amy and Ryan Gosling as Nick in the roles. I think that both would be a good fit and seem like a believable couple. Most likely Reese will play Amy as she is one of the producers on the project. Amanda Seyfried would be good in the role of the college student that Nick has an affair with. Emma Stone might be good in the role of Margo, Nick's twin sister. Maria Bello would be wonderful as the female detective that Nick confides in. All in all there are many strong female characters in the book. I am sure that many top actresses will be vying for roles.
I would like to see David Walton in the lead male role.
I actually think Reese could knock this out of the park. Amy has hints of Tracy Glick and a little bit of Reese's character in Freeway - the only two roles where Reese wasn't just good, but damn great.
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r22, David is a good choice, but I think they need someone a little more high profile. Given that Reese will most likely be Amy, an actor is needed that can match her toe to toe. Given that David is lower profile, Reese might eclipse him on screen. Nick and Amy are both manipulative and powerful in their own way. With a lesser known actor Reese might take over the entire movie whereas in the book the power struggle between Nick and Amy is tantamount to the story and needs to be translated as such on screen.
Bradley Cooper for Nick. He does smarmy douchebag quite well.
r25, Nick needs to be a little more of a "country mid western boy", Gosling would be perfect for this
I take your point, R22, but for me, Reese really fails to eclipse anyone, not even that lovely little chihuahua. Blondes just don't do it for me. I will wait for video if Reese is in it. And I'm over Ryan Gosling.
[quote]Maria Bello would be wonderful as the female detective that Nick confides in. But the detective was described as homely with thin hair or whatever.
r28, they could make Maria "movie ugly" to fit the role. Charlize did it in Monster. I think that Maria would be up for something like this with the right role.
R29, good point. I was actually a fan of Bello as the detective on Prime Suspect, but not too many others were since the show was canceled.
R28
Reese is perfect for Amy. As was noted upthread, think Freeway and Election, her two best roles. B Coop is a better choice for Nick than Gosling. Gosling is too young. Whoever said Emma Stone as Margo needs to be slapped. Hard. Though she would be good as that college student Nick fucks. If Charlize doesn't get Amy, she'd certainly make an interesting Margo. She could totally pull off both, which is why she's such a superb actress. I'm more interested that David Fincher is attached to direct.
Ryan Gosling isn't good looking enough to play Nick. The author kept harping on the point that Nick was a ridiculously attractive hometown golden boy type. I kept picturing Ryan Reynolds, but he's not a good enough actor for the part. GOOP is too GOOP-y, and too old. I actually like Reese for this. Or Rachel McAdams. Margo - don't know. What I do know is that it annoyed the fuck out of me that her nickname was Go.
No to both Charlize and Reese for Amy.
Amy is supposed to be 39 by the end of the book so Paltrow isn't too old. I also pictured Amy as a willowly blond ice princess. Think Carolyn Bessett Kennedy. Reese is a tiny, yappy dog but certainly not the perfect specimen Amy is made out to be in the book. That's why Charlize and Paltrow work better as WASPY NYC bitches.
I heard Emily Blunt is being considered for Amy. She'd be great. Maybe Josh Lucas for Nick? Is he too old?
Has anybody read her other books? Would you recommend them?
Emily Blunt, much better. I do not see Amy as a "tall willowy blond."
Count me as someone else who thought it was pretty good but then petered out toward the end.
Here's what I wrote in another thread: My problem with Gone Girl is that it's totally ludicrous. There's no rooting interest as the characters are all unlikable so there's not much to keep you going. The female character made tons of mistakes. There are at least 2 witnesses left alive. The timeline doesn't fit especially as some of what is done is not part of the original plan . The person accused of the crime lived in a different town and probably had an alibi as well. They also never once entered the crime scene residence so their DNA was never there and the evidence collected would never, ever match them. A lot of this stuff was just so DUMB that any cop would have spotted the inconsistencies --like they do with most hoaxes. Many people however, are fooled by a crappy ending into imagining this book is cleverer than it is. It's not and it sucks.
And I'll also add the writing style is atrocious going from one point of view to the other per chapter and both characters were walking cliches.
Those who hated the ending, how did you think it should end? I agree with the poster who said both got what they deserved. As for the movie, I think Reese will be fine. Though I was personally picturing Rachel McAdams in the role. For Nick and Margo, I was picturing Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal the whole time.
Well they hardly both got what they deserved considering one was a philandering asshole and the other committed murder. And I'll always believe murder trumps being an asshole any day with only one of them deserving a prison sentence. But I do believe this is why this book is so popular especially with women who probably identify with the whole revenge fantasy. If this book had ended a different way with the woman getting the shaft, you'd be hearing a lot of howling about how this book is so sexist and bad.
Anthony Mackie would make a great Nick. And Charlize Theron as Amy.
R39 -- Boney DID spot the inconsistencies, but the police were afraid to challenge Amazing Amy, finding it easier to accept her story, and close out the matter entirely. What was grim about the ending was the way Nick was forced to retract everything altogether, so that Amy gets away with it all, with Flynn underscoring that by having her brag about all the threads she sealed off. There needed to be a thread or two more obviously out there to trip Amy up later. One thing that was beyond Amy's control AT ALL was gambling on saying Desi was with her every day. If he went out of town, or was otherwise occupied, at any time (or at least on more than one occasion), her story falls apart completely. Everything just falls together TOO NEATLY to believe she's totally covered. If they broadcast a picture of Desi on St. Louis TV, you'd better believe the guy from the casino would've remembered seeing him with a woman ... who would've been familiar to the Ozark robbers, who strongly suspected the woman was Amy, along with the manager of the complex, who disliked Amy at the end of her stay. Even if Desi's mom and all her money can't break the self-defense angle, I'd think she'd know Amy wasn't there the entire time, so she'd invented the whole abduction-from-Carthage thing, and would dedicate herself to exposing Amy as a fraud, perhaps with Boney and Go's help as they know the truth as related in the shower.
The thing is, the police are always very, very motivated when they feel like someone has pulled a scam, cost them man power and time and money. They don't like to be made a fool of and hoaxes are cases they work the hell out of. This idea that the police would be afraid of Amazing Amy is downright stupid. The moment Amy strayed from her original plan she was in trouble. As you've pointed out she left a trail of people who witnessed her with Desi as well as several who could vouch that she was free as a bird at certain points in time. And my original point, where she just decides to point the finger at someone else just would never work because the police had already collected all the physical evidence from the crime screen and none of it would have matched. This story is full of holes and just does not hold up to scrutiny at all. If it's true that Flynn is also writing the screenplay for the movie, then I'd stay far away from this mess.
[quote]But I do believe this is why this book is so popular especially with women who probably identify with the whole revenge fantasy Amy's not the kind of women other women like. I hated her, she was a psycho and I wanted her to suffer.
I don't think I could go through reliving this mess as a movie either. The female readers I know think Amy was a sick fuck, and hated how Nick was railroaded, feeling he'd been "duly humiliated" about his affair enough. He's a very sympathetic character overall.
God, DL. Gone Girl wasn't supposed to be great literature. It was a fun summer read, better writing than most mainstream fiction, with an intriguing premise.
I liked her other two books a lot more than this one. Sharp Objects was amazing, and Dark Places was very good albeit had a major plot hole as its center (the decision the mother made and how she had it carried out).
Nonetheless GOne Girl made her rich, which she wasn't before.
I didn't care for Dark Places at all when the action shifted away from present day scenes with Libby Day. I give Flynn full marks for suspense with Gone Girl's plotting. However, she gives herself a huge pat on the back (via Amy's crowing) that the "official story" is an airtight, foolproof narrative, when there's lots of room for that house of cards to fall.
I really enjoyed it (although I recognize its flaws) and I too feel the ending was kind of perversely perfect. They are going to have a tough time making it into a movie though. The book relies on internal monologues and/or diary entries which are, of course, difficult to convey on film. I'll be curious to see what they do.
I stayed away from this thread until I finished the book. I also was left a little cold by the ending, partly because it was a big, "Oh, okay" ending and partly because it seemed like there were five different climaxes. It got wearying how they kept trying to top one another. And Amy's hostage story was so full of holes, how could nobody have seen that?
In what world would a guy like Desi be straight?
Rachel Mcadams would be great as Amy - she can act, unlike Goop. Ryan Gosling seems to obvious a choice for Nick. Maybe Jeremy Renner. He looks like a sap, but he'd have to look fierce by the time Nick figures out what's really going on. Desi = Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Agree, r42, the ending of dark places was bad, and not only the part about the mother. Sharp objects, on the other hand, was so over the top it was good, very gothic and atmospheric. Reese can not play Amy convincingly, she has terminal bitch face and does not look like she can fool anybody. Also, she's a strange looking dwarf.
Desi reminded me of Pee Wee Herman.
I read this and pictured Mark Ruffalo as Nick. Emily Blunt would be good as Amy, but too young to play against Mark Ruffalo.
So is 'GONE GIRL' Gillian Flynn's follow-up to her novel 'YOU GO GIRL'?
Desi was all "frocks and purses" as folks here at DL would put it. The thing is that Amy had NO CONTROL over any possible alibi he may had between her disappearance, and the day she called him. There's no possible way his mother couldn't have blown that story, so as far as I'm concerned she's not as home free as she thinks she is on that front.
I guess we'll never know. she will be an awful mother, however.
if a movie is made, with all the citicism of the ending of the book, i'm sure some changes will be made to make the ending to make it more along the lines of what peope want. they could show Boney figuring it all out as the last scene, after Amy thought she had totaly gotten away with it. i think she is that smart and i can't believe that someone written so smart thru out the book got so dumb at the end. how many good reviews would they get of a film made along the exact storyline of the book? my guess is none. no one wants to see a psycho bitch get away with what she did in the book
Janet Jackson as Betsy Bolt!