Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a roller coaster of plot, point-of-view, and personality disorders. Many of the book club members had read it and Goodreads recommended it to me based on my previously read books.
I liked Part 1 of the book when the wife goes missing and we don’t know what happened to her. There is a 2 person narrative: her diary leading up to the disappearance and his narrative of what happens before and after the event. We don’t know whether he’s to blame or not. It’s a murder-mystery sort of story.
Spoiler Alert: I will give this story away here.
Part 2 is where we find out that the wife staged her abduction and she is actually a sociopath who can plan and manipulate all details in the tale she has set up. The husband is implicated in the murder and the story gets played out in the media for the wife to watch. He knows she’s framed him and sees the only way to exonerate himself is if she comes back so he begs her to come back.
Part 3 is where her sociopathology and his narcissism become unbearable. She comes back and crafts her reality so carefully that he can not extract himself from her life.
Near the end, I went to Goodreads to see what the reviews said. Many readers expressed surprise at the ending of the book so I was anxious to see what twists there would be. I found the ending unsavory. The book itself was well written, an interesting twist on an old theme.
