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Join Gillian Flynn to discuss February's Book of the Month, Gone Girl, Tuesday 26 February, 9-10pm

196 replies

TillyBookClub · 14/01/2013 20:27

What is your most memorable whoa-I-didn't-expect-that moment? The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects finale? That naked bit in The Crying Game? Or maybe the midway point in Sarah Waters' Fingersmith? Our February book of the month is about to take its place in the pantheon of all-time greatest plot twisters.

GONE GIRL is an intelligent, astute, darkly witty thriller about a marriage. About two people, Nick and Amy, who think they know each other. On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, with presents waiting and the annual treasure hunt ready to begin, Amy has disappeared. The police arrive, the media seizes hungrily on the story and Nick soon finds himself the main suspect.

A modern-day Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn makes you squirm with horror yet keeps you riveted. As Kate Atkinson said: "I have no doubt that in a year's time I'm going to be saying that this is my favourite novel of 2012. Brilliant."

You can find more detail on our February book of the month page. Get your paperback or Kindle edition here.

And don't miss Gillian's sharply written website.

We are thrilled that Gillian will be joining us to discuss the book and answer any questions about GONE GIRL and her writing career on Tuesday 26 February, 9-10pm. Hope you can join us...

OP posts:
Original poster
TillyBookClub · 18/02/2013 21:37

A quick note to say: do start putting your questions up here for Gillian, I'll send them on to her at the end of the week, and she'll kick off with those at the beginning of the chat.

(And also to say: Greta Scacchi! Where is she now? She might be rather a good choice to play Desi's mum. I think Reese Witherspoon already signed up to play Amy, which I'm not entirely sure about as I can only see her as June Carter Cash)

OP posts:
difficultpickle · 18/02/2013 22:15

I thought Reese Witherspoon was only producing?

My question to Gillian - did it worry you that in creating Nick and Amy you made two lead characters that were so deeply unlikeable that there was a risk of completely alienating the reader? I read the book and really couldn't have cared less what happened or didn't happen to Nick and Amy or any of the other minor characters. There was no one in the book that had any redeeming features at all.

gazzalw · 19/02/2013 08:06

No, no Reese Witherspoon is not right for Amy at all! But having said that I am struggling to think who would be right! Dakota Fanning (possibly too young), Amanda Seyfried, Alice Eve or even Sheridan Smith???

I actually didn't mind at all that I didn't warm or relate to any of the characters - it meant I could read it without being drawn into the subterfuge!

lilibet · 19/02/2013 11:45

I have a question but it has a spoiler in it.

Tilly when are you declaring that we can post spoilers?

Janimoso · 20/02/2013 11:22

Well, i was at toddler group at 10am. My connection was sooo slow, and then it was snack time, so i missed out again!!!! :-\ anyway i am half way through gone girl and i have got march's book from library, so i will muckle along and try again next time :-)

SPBInDisguise · 20/02/2013 22:05

Finished! and I hae a couple of spoiler-y questions.
Althought one is that the back of the book mentions "persistent phone calls on his mobile phone" - did I miss something? Who were they from?

SPBInDisguise · 20/02/2013 22:05

Jan it's next Tuesday, you've not missed it

difficultpickle · 20/02/2013 22:37

Calls were from Andie. The more I think about this book the more I really disliked it and found some of the plot contrivances and glaring errors really irritating. Bit irrational really as it is only a book, albeit overhyped and poorly written (stories had gaps or errors that seemed prety basic) imvho.

SPBInDisguise · 20/02/2013 22:38

Ah yes. I thought that was part of the larger plot iyswim

ummlilia · 21/02/2013 12:04

I disliked it too, guessed the twist before we got there and as for the ending..guess I'm old and jaded ! Perhaps my expectations had been too hyped up;it has been around on so many book review sites and blogs for a while now..Sad

SPBInDisguise · 21/02/2013 12:43

Sorry people keep talking about "the twist" there were a few twists and turns, would someone pm me?

gazzalw · 21/02/2013 13:00

I'm with you on the 'old and jaded' Ummlilia - as I said previously, it felt as if I'd read much better a long, long, time ago.... I think that there are only so many twists in such thrillers and then one becomes so experienced in the genre that one see the 'surprise' coming a mile-off....

I don't think that I ever actually believed Amy was dead even at the beginning....

gaelicsheep · 22/02/2013 00:47

Well I've finished it. I enjoyed the first three quarters and then it lost its way quite badly and fizzled out.
Two things really annoyed me. The whole "Amazing Amy" thing and those blooming multiple choice questions.
I will be back with a question for Gillian when I've reflected on it a bit more.

Original poster
TillyBookClub · 22/02/2013 08:12

I'll say that all questions can now be posted (whether they contain spoilers or not) as we'll need to get them to Gillian asap.

So please go ahead and put your advance q's up here, and those will be the first to be answered on Tuesday eve...

Looking forward to it.

OP posts:
gazzalw · 22/02/2013 08:48

Wow Gaelicsheep you read that quickly.....

Was not the point of the multiple choice questions that she was a personality test design psychologist and it's as if she lived her life at one remove and almost treated herself as a scientific study of another (which kind of fits in with 'Amazing Amy' being a fictional psychological construct?).

SPBInDisguise · 22/02/2013 09:32

OK, my first thought was what would Amy have done if Desi had had an alibi for the time he 'snatched' her from her home? He may well have done, and she didn't seem to worry about that. She may have just chosen to take the risk (as he seemed to be much of a loner, no job etc) but it was a big risk to take

SPBInDisguise · 22/02/2013 09:35

One thing I did really like was that sympathies changed throughout the book, which is unusual. I started off liking both A&N, then feeling sorry for A, then N, then...neither of them really, but still hoping they'd get back together! And Desi - I know we were meant to feel sorry for him but he was just a big stalky controlling creep really.

difficultpickle · 22/02/2013 19:44

We only have Amy who said that Desi kept her prisoner. I don't think he did but frankly by the end of the book I thought that Nick and Amy deserved each other and I didn't care what happened to them. If there was a sequel I wouldn't bother reading it. I'm really surprised at how popular it is.

gaelicsheep · 22/02/2013 21:00

gazzalw - I'm sure that probably was the point, but for me it didn't work. As a device it was just far too crude.

The diary twist was interesting, but by the end I too really didn't care what happened to either of them.

Far more interesting would have been if Desi had kept Amy prisoner long term, and a proper exploration of that - Amy really getting her comeuppance, more than she bargained for, etc. Not escaping and this bizarre situation of her husband taking her back. And as for the ending - no no no!

Gargamella · 22/02/2013 21:35

First off, wanted to say I enjoyed this. It romped along and the short snappy style made it easy to catch installments throughout the day.

I found the whole 'Cool Girl' thing quite interesting. I wondered if Gillian was suggesting the Cool Girl persona might have began as something authentic but proved unsustainable, or was it always a front in this case?

SPBInDisguise · 22/02/2013 21:37

Yes but he was definitely stalkery - the tulips? Or are you suggesting her whole account might be fiction?
Did anyone else think as I did about the alibi?

gaelicsheep · 22/02/2013 21:49

Thanks again for sending the book btw gazzalw. I did enjoy the vast majority of it. Smile It's great having a target - makes me stick with a book instead of getting distracted onto other things.

gazzalw · 22/02/2013 21:59

De nada, Gaelicsheep...and sorry I was a bit obtuse about the dates....I seemed to be running a week ahead of myself so thought the web-chat was the Tuesday just gone rather than the coming one....wishing my life away.....

jennywren123 · 22/02/2013 22:01

There's something about this web chat. That's three of us that thought it was last Tuesday instead of next . . . . .

lilibet · 22/02/2013 22:08

Hi Gillian, thanks for coming onto mumsnet.

I think that both Amy and Nick were both thoroughly unlikeable as they were products of bad parenting, albeit in very different ways. Do you agree with this? And as a connected follow up, Could you envisage what sort of messed up child that liason would produce? I'm sure he would merit a novel of his own!!