Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn

✴ . 5

In a nutshell, Gone Girl is bloody fucked up!

If we ever had to rank books on how high they were, I would have to say Gone Girl was on some new synthetic drug cause, bloody hell it was crazy. Here we go, this is gonna be a long one. Brace yo-selves. 

I psychically have no idea how to explain this book so here is the goodreads synopsis:

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. 

Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer? 
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Gone Girl is labelled as a psychological-thriller, mystery novel. Now this may intrigue many of you as it did me, but do not be fooled. If you’re slightly on edge about this then seriously don’t read it. This book is literarily amazing and fantastic, I applaud Gillian Flynn because it really was very well thought-out and with this being said I personally struggled to enjoy.

This review is sorta pointless because I believe that for the majority of people will think it's brilliant (and I think the idea of the book was brilliant) and give it 5/5 stars, which I understand. This book just wasn't my cup of tea. But I have to review book on how I felt, hence the 2.5.

Its very hard for me to review this book as it was very hard for me to read this book. I've decided it's a 2.5-3 FOR ME. I feel as though I should give it a 3/5 stars cause I mean the idea Ms Flynn had for this book was mind boggling and i-dont-know-how-one-comes-up-with-something-like-this-!!!

It's another case of: Its not the books its me.

It’s kind of a funny story….just the other day one of my very close friends described me and my blog/reviews as (and I quote) : ‘your reviews always remind me of that sort of person who like wears flowers in their hair and drinks tea and keeps a scrapbook’ so why would someone as said read such an odd book. I’m asking myself the same goddamn question.

Its another case of: Its not the books its me the only other time I've mentioned this is in my Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen review because it was the similar situation where many people would like the book but personally I did not.

SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE THIS BOOK and I understand why they did. I suffer from anxiety attacks/panic attacks and this book was just not something I should have been reading. I read this on a plane and planes already make me freak out because gravity and howww! So when I started reading this even though I was just reading the first half which was a bit toned down I was still 

uncomfortable.

It's partially my fault that I didn't look to see what this genre was properly. Like I didn't know that this was a psychological thriller, I thought it was just a mystery novel. There is a reason I don't read mystery books, (1) because I cannot contain myself to figuring out 'who did it?' (2) it spikes my panic attacks.

This book triggers...I don't know if many people say it but it does and it was probably the worst book in the sense that I had to put it down MULTIPLE times to contain myself from a panic attack. It deals with themes of obviously mystery, dysfunctional relationships, gore, rape, sex(not making love sex), mental attributes etc. I know many things can trigger people but I thought to just warn anyone who like me (very oblivious) who may want to read this. 

I have never read anything else by Gillian Flynn and that is another downfall to this review as I have nothing else to compare and her other works might be fantastic, I also don't think I want to read anything else by her....ever. Another case of: it’s not the book or author but me. I'm sure Ms Flynn is a wonderful person and a very unique writer.

This was probably the most difficult book to read in 2014 for me and I have no freaking clue why I chose to read this now when the year is coming to a close.

I tried so hard to read this book, you cant even fathom how much. After I got like halfway through the book I started to skip pages and skim through because I wanted to know what happens without all the painful details. You're probably wondering why I wouldn't just stop and put the book down for good but the thing is I got so far through I wanted to just finish it for myself and for this blog; to say that I read something I found hard to push through and accomplish. But unfortunately that's not how anxiety works.

This book made me very anxious and I honestly don't recommend this to people who may be squeamish to these themes or people who trigger very easily. I've read two psychological thrillers this year. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (reviewed that here)  and Gone Girl and I've decided that I should stop reading psychological thrillers and mysteries because it's literally bad for my health and wellbeing. This might sound like I’m being a pussy who can't take a bit of scare or whatever but I try very hard to be open to all books and I try to read them and it's just not happening and I don’t think it ever will. Psychological-thriller/mystery novels were never something I liked reading anyways.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - another book with the prominent themes surrounding a psychological thriller - was 'alright' it was more tone down than Gone Girl. I don't think this book is flagged as adult but it feels like it should be! These characters (another thing I will get to) are in their mid-thirties.This book was mental and brilliant at the same time. I applaud Gillian Flynn for coming up with such an original book idea which is something you don't see much of these days.

Again I mostly read YA and not books like these so it was a tough start. I don't want to bash this book because I highly recommend this to people who are interested in this genre and the themes that follow. I just want to add a trigger warning as this book is intense. Gone Girl made me laugh and cry. In a perfect world where I didn't have panic attacks, yes, I probably would have enjoyed this more.

Gillian Flynn is a fantastic writer, I'm putting it out there now! She knows her way around words, she creates amazing semantic fields in her writing as well as her way of description. I have not read any of her other works as I've said before but this book did showcase Gillian Flynn's talent for writing. 

I don't want to spoil so if you want to read this book and you haven't already, skip this paragraph as it might be a spoiler. Oh these characters were a handful. For one they ARE UNRELIABLE! I don't want to spoil as much of this book as it is a mystery, but another major thing I disliked about this book was the main character(s). Bloody hell this couple were painful to keep reading on with .These characters are VERY UNRELIABLE the book is very devious. Yes, alright I agree the main character -Nick- explains himself and his ways further into the book, but I don't understand how one is so fucking oblivious and just chill about the events in this book. It was so painful to read I had to keep putting this book down (im sure i put the book down more that 15 times throughout the 3 days I read it) to contain myself so I wouldn't like scream. Also for fucks sake, why you gotta cheat? Like reading that ordeal was actually painful for me. 

Talk about dysfunctional relationships....if this book kept on going I think I would actually go insane. 

This was truly insanely brilliant. Gillian Flynn, wow I don't even know how you came up with such an idea but congratulations on how well this book has done. 

p.s

Check out my most popular reviews:
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I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer #1 | Michelle Hodkin

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hey ho! 

It's almost my birthday and I'm very excited to get a bunch of stuff I don't need. I'm also very excited to get The Retribution of Mara Dyer (#3) in the main around November-ish and it's gonna be a signed copy cause Michelle Hodkin said she was signing all pre-orders so if you want one go....go pre-order one noW!

I also started this book a few days before the Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon and when the read-a-thon started I only had a hundred or so pages left of this book so I finished this in the read-a-thon which was super fun. I also started and read some other fantastic books. More on that later. 

These covers are breathtaking! 

Well this was a very interesting read. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a young-adult /paranormal/ psychological thriller. I've actually spent the last four years avoiding books like this because I used to read loads of them back in the day (4 years ago), hard times. I used to read books like: Hush Hush, Beautiful Creatures, Fallen The Dark Divine etc, and I realised that I was a stupid little 'baiseur' and I was reading crappy-cliche-badly written books and I need to sort my goddamn priorities out. So I stopped. So the first time I heard about this I was all: Oh god not again, je ne peux pas continuew a lire cette connerie. 

'Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. 

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.
 
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.'

I did very much enjoy it and I will not ever be re-reading this, thankyou. 

I don't know whether to accept this book because ffs there is sexism and as a feminist I just, WHY!!!! I know there are people who hate this book ; it may be very cliche for people and I totally understand I mean I could have gone either way. Like I said before I stopped reading books like this because of 'this'. Putting that aside for this review I did enjoy this but I did not love it nor will I ever read it again. There are many reasons why I gave this book three stars and there is not enough of my sanity to explain why. 

I've seen this book contrasted with 50 shades of grey (without the sex) and yeah I see it. How are people giving this book a full five star rating? I mean how are you guys so oblivious? I would give you some examples to talk about but frankly I just finished writing an English lit essay and I rather not. 

To generalise this book messed with my head so bad. I need to also stress that this may trigger. This book deals with blood/abuse//post-trauma/anxiety/bruising etc and it may cause post-traumatic flashbacks or self-harm and I don't want anyone to get hurt, physically or mentally (｡^‿^｡). 

I personally suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and at times I did have to put this book down but I did finish it. The book is a psychological thriller but it's passive, it eases you into the mystery. It's not fast-pace or action packed but it messes with you for sure. When I was reading it I felt like I was going insane. Michelle Hodkin knows how to mess you up! My only reaction was 'WHAT THE F IS GOING ON?'

It's weird talking about this book because I like it and then I hate it. Bittersweet? I haven't read a book like this in a while. The writing style wasn't unique at first I thought it was written by a thirteen year old girl with a slightly large vocabulary. I then got used to the writing style, nothing special but it was refreshing. The book itself is a mystery and that was the element I adored, it was such a good page turner. Not to mention the book made me laugh a lot. Always a plus. I think I could let it slide (I hear screaming) I'm so sorry it's just I can't say I hate it because I don't, apparently it gets better, oh dear god I hope it does. 

I want to finish reading the series because (1) I already have the second book and I've pre-ordered the third, (2) It's a mystery! I can't just s t o p. 

The characters are alright nothing special. Noah though. Yeah I do like him and I hate that I do. I feel as though if he wasn't in this book it would just be depression, depression, depression and that's why Noah and Mara cancel each other out/help each other. The main character: Mara Dyer, I really do like her. Although she is very.....Anastasia Steele. Like she can't tell people (men) to F THE HELL OFF! But then again in a public situation with a guy I'm head over heels with I don't think I could either, but after the night I'd go home sleep on it and think about it and then ditch his ugly ass. 

What is even happening in this book? I'll read the second one and then I shall be back.