Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Q&A

I wondered if you were intending to comment on more than a particular marriage in the book? Were you saying something about the decline of middle class lifestyle - not that it turns people into psychopaths and liars, but perhaps that it it places intolerable strains on a lot of marriages?

I have a question about Amy as well. You give her some very powerful stuff to say about the price you have to pay to be a cool girl. It's a really blistering passage (and from over here makes American dating sound absolutely repulsive!) Are you trying to make a case for her as someone who genuinely has something to avenge?

Hi Gillian,

I was intrigued by the whole Amazing Amy thing - were you suggesting that Amy's parents were to blame for the way she was? Did you want to legitimise her rather than make her simply a psychopath?

Presumably you have to plot your novels meticulously beforehand? Do you enjoy that part of writing and how long does it take you compared to the actual writing bit?

I wondered if you secretly admired Amy?!

I wondered if you had any reasons for Nick to reveal his affair so late in the day, other than that you needed him to for the plot? - I felt if I'd known about the affair in the early part of the book I would have taken a different view of him. Novelists are allowed to withhold information of course, and unreliable narrators are unreliable, but this was a barefaced lie - of omission at least - and I felt slightly cheated.

I haven't actually read the book yet , but my question for Gillian Flynn is: what made you pick thriller as the genre for all three of your books?

Thank you I also received a free copy but am already reading something. Despite the reviews I will give it a whirl and hope I enjoy it. My last book was The Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce , a brilliant read for anyone interested.
Mads

I bought this book just before Gransnet mentioned it. I enjoyed it very much, very well plotted and original. I think I detested both husband and wife by the end - they deserved each other!

The other characters were hard to like too - quite refreshing. It's good to get away from the happy ever after from time to time.

I'm feeling really guilty now as I hadn't thanked Gransnet for my free copy of 'Gone Girl' or indeed for any of the other books I have been fortunate to receive from Gransnet. I had put Gone Girl aside as a birthday present for DIL but after reading this thread am now curious to see if I would like it. So, sorry DIL I am going to read it first and pass it on instead of wrapping it up. I'll come back with my views when I've dipped into it.

Have a few books on the go at the moment - this one I'm afraid is not holding my attention as much as I thought it was going to do at first. Think I will put this one on hold for a little while and come back to it shortly.

Thank you for sending a copy of Gone Girl. I expected more from this book which has had so much hype. It was only average - Patricia Highsmith, for instance, would have made much more of the storyline. And the ending was a great disappointment. I actually turned the last page, expecting another few paragraphs at least. Did Gillian just get fed up and stopped?

Sorry but I haven't had time to read the book yet , only into the first part of Wolf Hall at present, then its Gone Girl!

Loved the book! hated the ending

Thank you for my copy. Like many others I found it difficult to get into and to be honest found that it didn't improve the more I read. I did finish it but was very disappointed. Sorry but I won't bother reading any other Gillian Flynn books.

I thought Gone Girl was an excellent book. Slow to start but unputdownable at the end.

Oh, it is on my reading list right now, thought it is hard for an English learner, Hope it would be not that hard for me to understand. If there is an e-book version for me, it would be better!

i found " gone girl" heavy going at first, but similiar to other reviewers i found it got better half way, but was disappointed with the end. i may need to reread it at some time x`

Like others I found this difficult to get into and confusing with the story from different viewpoints and the diary entries but once I did I thought it was highly imaginative and an engrossing page-turner. Leaving aside Nick and Amy can I ask why you made the other characters so dislikeable, even those who turn up to help in the initial search? Surely this isn't your general view of your fellow countrymen.
Interested in your answer over the ending as in the previous question or did you make the end as it is so we can look out for a Gone Girl 2 with a daughter leading the way?

I agree it started slowly but I got to the stage when I was looking for any excuse to sit & read it! I was actually up at 2am one night. It really gripped me but I am not sure WHY. There was not one single nice person in the book- even the bit players were not normal people & I really actively disliked both Amy & Nick. I'm not sure I could say I 'enjoyed' it but will be getting DH & members of my reading group to read to read it so I have someone to talk o about it.
It is very difficult to review as you don't want to give anything away to anyone who has not finished it but I did appreciate all the twists in the plot very much. I did not enjoy the language- American authors do seem to use far more bad language that UK authors & some of this was very extreme & I really am not a prude at all- it was just so insistent towards the end of the book I found it annoying. I hated the end but I suppose there was no other possible end but I would have liked to see an ending that punished the guilty party ( is that vague enough- I hope so!).
I would like to ask Gillian Flynn if she specifically set out to write about 2 nasty people so readers would have divided loyalties. Also did she consider an ending that would have left readers with a closure of sorts rather than up in the air.
I'd like to say more but I don't want to spoil it for others who have not finished it yet.

This book is a great read! I began it yesterday afternoon and can't put it down. I do not understand how anyone can say it is slow, boring or that they find it difficult to gt into. Best book I've read in a long time.

I agree it was a slow start but overall I enjoyed reading it, the second half being much more interesting.
I think it would make a great film!

Just going to start reading this book which I
received a short time ago will let you know how i get on with it

This must have the fewest good reviews of all the GN free books.

Gone Girl was recommended to me by a friend whose choices in books are usually similar to mine. But I found this one really hard going and, like others in the forum, found myself dropping off and having to re-read pages. But about halfway through, I really got into it and couldn't put it down. The ending was not entirely satisfactory and once I had finished the book, I found it had left me feeling quite disturbed, really thinking about all that happened, wondering what to believe and deciding that the main protagonists were both very odd people! I don't think I'll look out for another Gillian Flynn book!