Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

[clq]

I apologise in advance, but this is going to be the kind of review that keeps going on about the book having been adapted to a film, and, even worse, I'm going to let the fact that I've seen the film colour my review of the book. Sorry, but it's impossible not to. But hey, at least I'm not going to spoil anything!

I saw the film of Gone Girl when it came out, and knew I had to read the book. I liked the book, just as I liked the film. However, I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more had I not known that was going to happen.

It's a good story, and, I think, the kind of story it's best to know nothing at all about before reading the book. So I'm not going to say anything. It's cleverly written, engaging, and enough is kept from the reader to leave us guessing, both about the story and the characters in it. But, again, knowing where the story was going I found myself enjoying the build-ups, the uncertainty, and the twists much less than I think I would have had I approached the story cold.

It's probably unfair to blame this on the book though, and I don't. At least not much. I had hoped my experience would be more like that of reading We Need to Talk About Kevin, also after having seen the film. In that case the book was very different from the film, and I found myself enjoying the book immensely, as I had the film, but in a very different way. Reading Gone Girl it almost felt like I was reading the book for the second time, which probably speaks to how well it was adapted.

So in general I'd recommend Gone Girl to anyone, but if you haven't seen the film I'd say this should probably be the next book you read. If only so you don't know what happens when you do.