Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn a while back and it was the first book I read after a long reading hiatus. This book fired up my neurons and since then I've read all of Flynn's books. This is a book that will make you question your own sanity.
The book starts off slowly by introducing us to Nick and Amy: a "Kodak moment" couple. Then Amy goes missing and Nick is identified as the #1 suspect. Flynn takes you on a suspenseful journey trying to figure out exactly WHO Nick and Amy are, something neither seems to be sure of themselves. By the end of Gone Girl you will definitely be saying "what the hell just happened" and questioning if you really know who anyone is, let alone yourself.
The book is written from both Nick and Amy's point of view. Each chapter is narrated by one of them. Flynn successfully establishes distinctive voices for each character. As the book progresses it gets sicker and sicker, but it's like a car crash. It looks horrible, but you just can't turn away. Flynn's writing is absolutely brilliant because she makes both characters relatable at first and then slowly unravels their minds to the reader. As you get further into the novel you realize that the character flaws you related to have been turned into something much uglier. Gone Girl is one of the best psychological thrillers I have read in recent years.
In addition to reading the book, I also listened to the audiobook. This was actually the first audiobook I had ever listened to. I've always been wary of them and to this day I still consider myself a better reader than listener. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne. Now I have always been told that the narrator makes or breaks the audiobook experience. This is the truest statement. Because I read the book first, I already had an idea of what each character sounded like in my head. Whelan and Heyborne perfectly captured the characters I had envisioned. If you haven't ever listened to an audiobook and would like to try it out, I highly suggest starting with Gone Girl.
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