Gone Girl

A Novel

By: Gillian Flynn

Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne

Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “mercilessly entertaining” (Vanity Fair) instant classic “about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships” (Lev Grossman, Time)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenes

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY TIME AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • People • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • Slate • Kansas City Star • USA Today • Christian Science Monitor

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. 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?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Chicago Tribune • HuffPost • Newsday

©2012 Gillian Flynn (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Absorbing . . . In masterly fashion, Flynn depicts the unraveling of a marriage—and of a recession-hit Midwest—by interweaving the wife’s diary entries with the husband’s first-person account.”—The New Yorker

“Ms. Flynn writes dark suspense novels that anatomize violence without splashing barrels of blood around the pages . . . Ms. Flynn has much more up her sleeve than a simple missing-person case. As Nick and Amy alternately tell their stories, marriage has never looked so menacing, narrators so unreliable.”—The Wall Street Journal

“The story unfolds in precise and riveting prose . . . even while you know you’re being manipulated, searching for the missing pieces is half the thrill of this wickedly absorbing tale.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

Thriller by misdirection

You start this book in a open state of mind but, soon into it, you feel something is amiss, then wrong and then terribly wrong. There are so many unanswered questions, gestures clues, and smiles -- a treasure hunt even. The main character reminds of Meursault in Camus' "The Stranger."

The narration of this book is excellent and keeps you enthralled. It is a lengthy so you have to just get through it. This is not a book for young teens, the audience is for more of a thriller, who-done-it, dark romance-esq crowd. If you don't listen, you will be missing something good.

Dark & Somewhat Disturbing

What made the experience of listening to Gone Girl the most enjoyable?

The way the story unfolds from light & twists into something entirely opposite.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes & I found myself almost "worn out" trying to figure out the end

Which character – as performed by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne – was your favorite?

Well I liked & felt sorry for Nick but I HATED AMY!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A twisting psycho thriller

Any additional comments?

This isn't what you'd call a "feel good" book. It is well written. Maybe a bit drawn out & the narrators did a very good job but I found it very dark & disturbing & at the same time very good. How's that for a very "psycho" review?!!

Almost 40 Hours Of Entertainment

As soon as I finished listening to this book, I immediately restarted it from the beginning. The story is shocking, but so well constructed that once you know the end, you realize it was inevitable. Through my first listen, I did not want to stop. The second time through was no less engaging.

Having two narrators tell the story - from the point of view of the husband and also his missing wife - was essential. Both readers were talented. At first I thought Kirby Heynorne's delivery was to performative, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that is part of the character he is building. Julia Whelan was amazing. She shines with the material. In the future, I can imagine her presence as the narrator of a novel being decisive in my purchase.

very hard to finish

This was decent and I am glad I read it and all but a mix of the disturbing content and merely the fact of how unpleasant it was to stay in these character's minds for so long made it a tough book. I think the alternating narration was very good. This is the first book in years where I kept reading the wikipedia summary a bit ahead of the book because I was impatient for them to just get on with it.
I would recommend this book I think but it is likely to be the last book I am likely to read in the "domestic noir" subgenre. I think to much focusing on peoples emotions and feelings and irrational thoughts etc, however important that was to the plot just put me off.

Couldn't wait for it to be over!

I am SO TIRED of books full of unlikeable characters. Is this the new trend? Between this and Defending Jacob it seems all the rage right now! The narrating is excellent, particularly "Amy", but didn't make up for a dragging and exhausting plot. And hating everyone just gets so old.

Performance and Story Great

If you could sum up Gone Girl in three words, what would they be?

startling, unusual, compelling

What other book might you compare Gone Girl to and why?

I cannot make a comparison-this book is truly oiriginal

Have you listened to any of Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to previous performances, but I'll be on the look out now,

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Nick realizes the extent of the frame-up and turns to hatred of Amy

Any additional comments?

Really excellent recording.

Never saw this plot coming

The story opens fairly conventionally, leading to a crime scene, and then everything gets strange and stranger. Well done, although it leaves a nasty aftertaste.

DateLine Meets The Time Traveler's Wife

What did you love best about Gone Girl?

It was exactly like a Dateline episode. You don't actually know "who dun it" till mid way. And even after that its still fascinating. The start of the story is told through the perspective of the husband in the present day & the wife in journal form.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

YES! I really didn't want to stop listening. I would get home after work and continue to listen to this book instead of turning on the tv. For the first whole half of the book you really wonder if Nick (the husband) did do it, or if it was a frame job or if Amy (the wife) just ran off... Gillian Flynn really keeps you guessing.

Have you listened to any of Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I feel like I must have. They have great voices and they sound familiar, but I don't associate them with anything specific... Both did great in their performances.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes... but with this book you can't give anything away.

Any additional comments?

This book is worth way more than just a credit. Buy it, you will not regret it!

Read this!

What a great read. A little bit of a mind bender. How everything she does comes full circle. This book had me thinking about it a lot even when I wasn't reading. Loved the book style and story. You wont waste a minute reading this.

Flynn is a Master at what She Does

So, I'll be honest. I read this book when it first came out and listened to the audio version soon after. Then, when the movie was going to come out, I, again, decided to listen to it. It's been in my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to own it but had read it SO many times. The honesty part of this is that I write my reviews fairly regularly and Audible's 20th has a reviewers entry. I wasn't close to finishing any of the books I'm listening to currently so I had to buy one that I'd already read.

Anyway, onto the review! 'Gone Girl' was my first experience with Gillian Flynn, then I read Dark Places, and then Sharp Objects. If I were to rate them on which ones were best it would be: 1. Sharp Objects, 2. Gone Girl, 3. Dark Places. Although, all are amazing. I am glad that I did start out with her latest book (Gone Girl), because there was such a level to detail and character development that I got much more out of the other two based on reading Gone Girl first.

Gone Girl examines the age old quandary of the differences between men and women. The story starts the day of the fifth anniversary of Nick and Amy Elliot-Dunne. In the past, Amy's father designed a scavenger hunt every year before their anniversary for her mother and Amy has adopted her own version of this for Nick. Nick, although he loves his wife, never excelled with these hunts and by the end, Amy would be upset. Years earlier, Nick and Amy were hit hard with the crash of '08 and both had lost their jobs. The only money they had was the money Amy's parents had set aside with their very successful children's book called Amazing Amy. After Nick's mother becomes very ill, Nick and Amy head to Missouri from Manhattan, a thing Amy would never dreamt of doing in her life. So, being uprooted from the place she always called home was jarring for Amy. Nick felt the distance between them growing, so he spent a lot of his time at the bar he ran with his sister (purchased with the remaining money in Amy's trust).

On their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing and, suddenly, there is a frenzy to find Amazing Amy, brought on by Amy's parents' book fame and the fact that Amy is a pretty, white, blonde female (the news eats that up!). Through all of this, Nick becomes overwhelmed and more and more is revealed about BOTH of their individual lives and their lives together. Their blissful marriage... the person they think they know sleeping next to them...all of it could be a lie...In this case, a lot of it IS a lie.

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY