Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?'

Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed?

Vicious! The resentment and hatred that fills these pages is absolutely vicious! Shocking! Wonderful!

This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a true mind fuck (pardon the expression). The twists and turns and loop-de-loops; it blew my mind.

The characters are so real, frighteningly real. Believable characters of this degree of excellence is difficult in the best of times, but to interweave them into such a labyrinth, Gillian Flynn I must applaud you. Amy made me laugh right from the start (her very first paragraph sounds exactly like a younger me). She may actually be my new favourite fictional female.

The alternation of perspectives was intriguing and amusing, seeing both sides of the story. However, I did find it occasionally difficult to follow the timeline when characters began reminiscing. I would flip back and try to see if another had mentioned it in a memory yet, and where it fit in their overall history.

I wish this book hadn't ended. I could have continued reading it for forever and a day. It was just too fascinating to stop; but then it did. I would have liked to glimpse a further six months or a year ahead, just to see if all went according to plan. I guess we will just have to assume everything worked out the way it was intended. But I still want more!

This is a book I am definitely going to read over and over.