Gillian Flynn
Crown: New York, 2012
ISBN: 978-0297859383
By all accounts, Amy and Nick Dunn are the perfect couple, from looks on down to their marriage. When the recession leaves both of them unemployed, they move from New York to Nick's suburban Missouri hometown to care for his terminally ill mother. Using the remainder of Amy's trust fund, Nick opens a bar and they settle into a life very different from their urban one, until Amy disappears with signs of a struggle on the fifth anniversary. Nick and the police are left bewildered, with few leads. All is not as it seems in this contemporary noir though things are starting to point to Nick. Told in alternating chapters between Amy's diary recalling their past, and Nick's narrative voice in the present, this novel is suspenseful and engaging. It is easy to see why this became such a bestseller, and it is recommended for adults and mature teens aged 16 and up, for sexuality and violence (and sheer plot complexity).
I was actually rather surprised to find myself enjoying this book! I can admittedly be a bestseller snob, in that I tend to pooh-pooh them because my tastes are obviously so highbrow...or something. Yeah, it makes no sense to me either! Anyways, enjoy it I did, though enjoy may not be the best word choice. This book is, as my Mamita would say, bien loco. Loosely translated that means pretty fucked up (I don't like to swear on here, but this book beyond earns F-bomb status for being craycray). Prepare yourself for some OH, SNAP! moments, and to not really be brace yourself for the twists and turns the plot will throw at you; all is really not as it seems, and as a reader who you like and dislike is turned on its ear, often. My only quibble? The end. No spoilers here, but gosh darn it if I wanted it to end differently than how it does! I strongly recommend bringing this on a beach/lazy vacation where you can read largely interruption free - you're not going to want to put it down, amigo!
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