Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

[Ashley]

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3.5 stars-ish. Take that rating with a grain of salt because I have no idea how I should actually rate it.

Okay, WHAT THE HELL was that ending? And I don't mean that in the "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AMAZING!" way. I mean that in the: what was that pointless, unsatisfying ending?

To be clear, I adored Gone Girl for about 90% of the book. I was hooked, loving it, totally desperate for more. I loved the mystery and the not knowing and I was dying to hear about this famously shocking ending. Little did I know that it was a "shocking" ending not because of what happened to Amy or whether or not Nick was guilty, but shocking because of how totally, surprisingly unsatisfying it was. And that pisses me the fuck off!

I hate how I was loving this book so much, then the ending killed it. If not for the ending, this could have easily been a 5-star book. But the ending left me with a feeling of: that's it? I was so shocked that there weren't more pages; shocked that THIS how it's going to be left. That ending left me with a bad, annoying feeling of what was otherwise a phenomenal book.

This review has turned out so different than how I imagined. When I was like 80 or 85% finished, I was already picturing my review. I could see myself raving about the mystery and the "not knowing" and the desperate desire to get to the end. I was making guess upon guess upon guess and I wanted to see if any of them would be right! But most importantly, I wanted that bitch Amy to suffer some consequences. I wanted her parents and the world to see her for the lying, manipulative, crazy bitch she was. But the ending changed everything. It changed my whole opinion of the book and it changed my entire review, from one glowing with praise, to one dripping with frustration and annoyance. WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?!

If you want to know what happens in the end, I'll recap it for you: Quite early on we learn that Amy is framing Nick for murder because she realized Nick was cheating on her. But at that same time, we realize that Amy is actually psycho. I mean, she has some serious mental issues that need to be treated. She tries on personalities like you'd try on shoes. For Nick, she tried on the "cool girl" personality, but after they got married, she started dropping that personae and as a result, Nick fell out of love with her (which is understandable, because she wasn't who he thought she was). So, he started cheating (that doesn't make cheating okay, but it makes it more understandable, I guess). Amy found out and wanted Nick to suffer so she decided to plan to run away, but frame Nick for her murder, and eventually kill herself to solidify the evidence (she was that crazy). Then Nick realizes that Amy is framing him (through a series of notes she left him) and is FUCKING PISSED because everyone thinks he killed her. So I'm sitting there wanting Nick to either kill Amy or at least have her sent to prison... instead, she goes back to him (killing an innocent guy to get there, further proving her psycho behaviour), spins a false tale of kidnap, rape, and abuse (by the innocent guy), and then she and Nick just get back together. And have a child. What the fuck. That poor fucking child. It's going to have the most fucked up parents ever, because the parents both hate each other but pretend to love each other (they actually say those words).

For most of the book, Gone Girl was intense, captivating, and full of surprises. I loved it so much, which was a huge deal for me because I was hating a lot of books at the time. But that ending... it just killed my love for this story. That incredible, carefully thought out story just unraveled and we were left with pieces that made no sense and offered no satisfaction or justice/revenge.

I don't even know how to rate this book because with a better ending, I would have given it 5 stars. How to I rate it when it's a great book, but the ending is total shit? I have no idea, so I kind of picked 3.5 stars at random.