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

[TillyBookClub]

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...

Personally, I think the ending is absolutely right for the book: leaving it our own interpretation, ambiguous, unsettling, thought-provoking.

wow I am so excited you responded to my post Gillian I won't sleep now - thank-you! I am off to download your other books on my kindle. Good luck with it all and thanks for coming on here x

Yes, I liked the ending. I loathed Nick so much though, that he could have been sent to jail and had the key thrown away, and I wouldn't have cared. I suppose that's a bit harsh, but he maybe could have been sentenced to have his nostril hairs individually removed by tweezers daily or something. That would have made me quite happy.

I was expecting Nick to finally be believed, so then free to kill her.
But I love the baby ending.

Thank you for your answer Gillian, that's very interesting. The more I think about this book the more I agree with squeaver and others that the ending probably is appropriate. Nothing is cut and dried, and I think any other ending might itself have felt contrived. It is unsettling, yes, but perhaps that's as it should be.

I just finished the book today, I was racing through it to find out how it ended!

I was really interested in the dynamic between Nick and Go, how do you imagine that would change with the [SPOILER ALERT] return of Amy?

The central character in Dark Places is one of my favourites. A prime example of how a protagonist can be extremely flawed and yet somehow the writer still has you rooting for her. I didn't root for Nick and Amy in the same way but thinking about this as a love story rather than a morality tale, the book makes perfect sense. I also agree that straightforward, logical endings are a tad boring. But as a reader, the ending you expect depends on what you think you've signed up for. I'm not sure that bit is quite as obvious in Gone Girl as in Dark Places.

@BumgrapesofWrath

I really enjoyed the book! Very clever plot.

Is Amy based (loosely obviously) on someone you know? I just got a really good feel for her character, she seemed so real and believable to me.

Also, how did you go about writing the plot of the story without getting confused yourself? Lots of post-it notes? Or diagrams? The story wove together so nicely you must have planned it meticulously (like Amy??)

Ha! Thank you! She is, thank goodness, not based on anyone I know. But I think we've all met people like her. Severe alpha girls who will always do better than you and get more than you because they don't care whether they're acting morally. they just want to win. To me, that was a big key to Amy. Also her "perfection": She?s beautiful, smart, wealthy?nothing has ever gone wrong for her. I think that?s a very dangerous way to grow up, because it doesn?t teach buoyancy. I believe buoyancy to be one of the most important human skill there is. When things begin to go wrong, Amy doesn?t know what to do or how to handle it.

As for plotting: Yes, mad post-it notes! I am not good at plotting, and I chose to write this very plotted book. My way of organizing my thoughts is to write the chronology and the facts, and the dates, and the clues on pieces of paper and tape them to the wall of my little home office. By the end of Gone Girl, it looked like the den of a mad woman! Thousands of fluttering little scraps of paper. Who was telling what lie to whom and when? And then all the police work and legal questions on top. Madness!

I have been speed reading all day... and still have about 50 pages to go but just wanted to check in and say how much I've enjoyed the book (so far!) I didn't see the twist coming at all..... Know there have been comments about the end so want to make sure I get there without finding out what happens (so apologies if my question is a repeat, I daren't read the thread) but just wanted to know if there were any real life incidents/ characters /events that inspired the story or whether it was all just the fruit of a brilliant imagination:) I loved the anniversary trails for example and thought the way women expect men to remember stuff rang very true. I also loved the way you totally manipulate the reader's emotions...

I'll be giving the book to lots of friends... but am off to finish it first. Thanks so much for coming on Mumsnet!

Lol - BoF. I loved the bit where he finally admitted where he was on the morning of the disappearance: in a storage unit, reading old copies of his magazine. So pathetic and so telling.

Gillian - thanks for your answer!
The Amy character became more fragile when she was attacked - almost as if she didn't see it coming, but with a mind that sharp, she should have done. At that point I had more of an insight. I felt that there she was, a spoiled only child who had been brought up to believe she was invincible, but there were elements to society that she was completely unprepared for... I think I had wanted to see more of that.
And I love that both Nick and Amy are trained story tellers. As others have said, the unreliable (but purposefully so) narration really works extremely well for me.

Sorry - not when she was attacked, when she was threatened and had to give her money over.

Thank you for answering my questions Gillian!! You've made my night!

I'm off to buy Dark Places on Amazon now...

@HellesBelles396

an early question: is the book more about dysfunctional marriages or dysfunctional parenting?

My intention was to explore a marriage that, on paper, may seem to be a fantasy match?and then to explore what went wrong. But you?re right: Nick and Amy are two people who?ve been parented in such a way that they truly believe they are the golden children?they can do no wrong. They are self-centered and egocentric. In Amy?s case, she had an iconic status, because of the Amy books, that she didn?t even earn. She?s beautiful, smart, wealthy?nothing has ever gone wrong for her. I think that?s a very dangerous way to grow up, because it doesn?t teach buoyancy.

@BOF

Yes, I liked the ending. I loathed Nick so much though, that he could have been sent to jail and had the key thrown away, and I wouldn't have cared. I suppose that's a bit harsh, but he maybe could have been sentenced to have his nostril hairs individually removed by tweezers daily or something. That would have made me quite happy.

The dreaded nostril hair punishment?I like it!

Just a small point but I loved the part so much where nick is thinking about the downfall of Carthage. The point he made about being the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time and the secondhand experience always being better - these few paragraphs really stayed with me for weeks after finishing the book which I loved. I wouldn't have changed anything at all, loved it!

Thank you for answering my question, and my friend is thrilled to have an insight into how things might go for the baby, just as much as I am. I really hope Amy meets her match when that baby grows up and turns out 'worse' than she is.

I did think I had the ending all worked out at one point, I thought Nick and Amy were in it together for the insurance money and that poor old Andie would get the blame for the 'murder' of Amy, the affair being a set up that Amy knew about all along.

After that, I wanted Nick to have some sort of justice and to escape Amy once and for all.

But when it finally came down to it I think my reaction was "NO! That can't happen!" followed by "Oooh, that was clever!"

And it might not have been what I thought I wanted, but it couldn't really have been any other way and I love it when that happens in a book. Now we don't have an ending, we have another beginning and a lot of imagining to do.

Until the sequel?

Hmm, am loving the buoyancy thing...

@littlewifey

Just finished. Enjoyed the twist about the diary but was disappointed by the ending and left feeling very frustrated about the main characters! My question for the author is: Would you consider/ have any plans already for writing a sequel to Gone Girl?

That was never my plan when I wrote the book. But I do find these to characters fascinating. It could be fun to dip back in on them when their child hits the teenage years!

Ooh, that's a brilliant idea. It would beat the shit out of The Omen.

half-way thru the book and loving it. can't wait to find out what happens.
Thank you Mumsnet for the book!

@gazzalw

This is definitely a case of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". I do love a thriller where all is not as it seems and just love the very stark contrast twixt the perfect fairy tale Amy and the darker and more complex reality which is hidden beneath her All-American apple-pie image and beauty.

My question, Gillian is this: you have painted the starkest picture of the disintegration of a love-affair from heady perfect romance, to simmering tensions, to the pure hatred and rage which culminates in such a twisted form of vengeance. I definitely thought that of David Lynch as I read your novel - this idea of things not being at all as they seem on the perfect surface. Are you personally that cynical about love and relationships?

Thank you for such a thoughtful question! I am not a cynic, but I can be wildly pragmatic. I do think a lot of people enter relationships because of the way the person makes them feel. They don?t enter them to love, they enter them because they feel better about themselves when reflected through the eyes of this other person. Obviously, your spouse should make you feel good about yourself, but entering a relationship because you believe someone may ?fix? you is a losing proposition for both sides. I think that is a bit of Nick and Amy?s problem. As Nick says: They complete each other in the most dangerous way. Nick felt smarter with Amy, and more challenged to be the man he wants to be, but he doesn?t feel able to be himself with her. He doesn?t feel loved unconditionally. Amy would, of course, say that isn?t the point of love.

Quick update: Gillian has very kindly offered to carry on till 10.15, so she can get to some of the advance questions from earlier in the thread...and then possibly she'll be able to post a few more when her computer is back to normal.

@tallpoppies

Just a small point but I loved the part so much where nick is thinking about the downfall of Carthage. The point he made about being the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time and the secondhand experience always being better - these few paragraphs really stayed with me for weeks after finishing the book which I loved. I wouldn't have changed anything at all, loved it!

Thank you so much. That's actually one of my favorite passages in the book (if I may be so immodest). I do think we are getting so saturated with pop culture and devices and the ability to upload anything and everything into our brains that it becomes harder to be genuine people?our first reactions too often are echoing someone else's. Plus everything is better with a soundtrack!

"Love story"? "Soul mates"?

Are you saying that you are addressing a predominantly female audience here?
If not, it is a bit disappointing (to me). I read Gone Girl as the story of a brilliant psychopath who, like Hannibal Lecter, manipulated everyone and succeeded in getting her way against long odds.

Nick is staying with Amy only because she is pregnant, so how is this a love story of soul mates?

The ending was great, by the way. Killing Amy or sending her to jail would have been the easy way out. Having the psychopath win is a courageous choice and makes the ending original.