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Anyone else disappointed with Gone Girl ending?

68 replies

SailorEverRose · 23/09/2014 01:52

I was hooked and then the ending was terrible.

It was not an ending.

I felt like the last 50 pages were pretty pointless.

Also Amy stated she had been attacked by being hit with the puppet and yet claimed she managed to put them in the shed to be found as a present?

How would she have time to do that after being hit by one and kidnapped?

OP posts:
BringMeTea · 29/09/2014 08:05

Well the book itself was an easy-to-read romp. I didn't like the ending but not really because she got away with it, as someone said, very bad people do get away with things. I just didn't buy that he would stay. Oh Lord I bet Hollywood have got her getting just desserts. Or have they?!

mmack · 29/09/2014 17:14

I'm curious about the film ending too. I think it's well worth a trip to the cinema instead of waiting for the DVD. Sometimes mediocre books make excellent films and vice versa. I think they did a good job with casting this and I've enjoyed everything David Fincher directed except Benjamin Button.

Getafuckingjob · 29/09/2014 19:02

Loved it right up till the ending. Couldn't put it down, stayed up till the small hours absolutely riveted, flicked the page and it was all over.Cop out.
Angry

EvilEmperorZurg · 29/09/2014 19:10

Loved the first half - hated the second. I thought it was like she'd put all her energy into writing the first half and then got bored....

catsofa · 29/09/2014 21:36

Exactly. I thought she'd written a really good first half and then didn't know where to go with it so let it all get more and more implausible until it just didn't really work any more.

IPityThePontipines · 03/10/2014 13:11

I was really hoping for a better twist then one of the characters turning out to be the stock "Bitter, Shell of a Person", who overpopulate modern thrillers.

I thought the ending was equally fitting and frustrating, but I really longed for something a bit smarter/more surprising.

animalsunited · 03/10/2014 16:46

Thought the book was over rated but the film gets excellent reviews by trusted film critics. I think David Fincher is excellent and I'm sure he's put his own stamp on this book and improved upon it. Can't wait to see it!

GemmaTeller · 03/10/2014 16:49

Read the book when it was on the 'must read' list at the library and was expecting a bigger twist to the tale at the end.

To me, its gone on the 'didn't get the hype' pile.

Am hoping the film is better.

Gaia81 · 03/10/2014 17:36

I read it as it had been left in a holiday place we rented. Had totally forgotten about it until all this talk of the film and now I've remembered how much it irritated me ( not quite enough to stop me reading and throw it in the pool though!)

treaclesoda · 03/10/2014 17:40

Yes, I hated the ending. Although I did like the rest of it. Except for two things 1) the author twice described people as smelling 'vaginal' and the repetition really stood out because it was such an odd description and 2) the sister being called 'Go' just really pissed me off as I juet couldn't imagine anyone abbreviating Margo to Go.

Moobaloo · 03/10/2014 20:18

I quite liked it! I did skim the last bit though as I was bored so it can't have been that good. Am interested to find out how the film ends!

JapaneseMargaret · 03/10/2014 20:24

I enjoyed reading the book - very easy to read - towards the end it was like watching a gruesome game of tennis. They just kept batting worse and more incredulous shit back and forth at each other, until it reached fever pitch, and then there was nowhere else to go with, except for the ending that eventuates. It was sort of inevitable.

Keen to see the film.

If the ending has been changed, I will be very, very surprised if it's not to Amy getting her comeuppance.

I have to say Gone Girl gives the MRA types a lot more mileage in the 'women routinely make false rape allegations' trope... And of course most of them won't have the wit and wherewithal to realise that it was a total sociopath who actually did make it up.

lavenderhoney · 03/10/2014 22:53

If you read Linwood Barclay, " never look away" you will feel gone girl was exactly the same story, as though the author lifted straight from that and unfortunately not as good as Barclay.

Feeling quite controversial:)

BOFster · 04/10/2014 00:30

I've just come from the film, having loved the book. All I can say is: go and see it. You will feel very satisfied by the ending, I promise you.

JapaneseMargaret · 04/10/2014 06:07

Ooh, intrigued now. :)

teddygirlonce · 04/10/2014 08:03

Didn't like the book at all - it wasn't a page-turner for me. I have been around the block' a few times and have read my fair share of brilliant thrillers so maybe I'm just jaded about its quality (or lack of).

Still want to see the film though! DH went to see it and thought it very good indeed (although he hasn't read it!).

mmack · 04/10/2014 10:40

Lavenderhoney, you are so right-the first half of Gone Girl was very, very similar in plot to Never Look Away. Did you ever read Harlan Coben's The Innocent? It also has a wife who mysteriously disappears and it is a great story.
I think good crime writing is an underestimated art and books that have elements of crime fiction in a broader story often don't work particularly well. I'm thinking of Appletree Yard and The Goldfinch as recent examples of books that got it a bit wrong. I think Gone Girl and The Husband's Secret were two that had tighter plots and worked better.

IPityThePontipines · 04/10/2014 12:25

Mmack - this is the wider issue of genre snobbery isn't it? Writing a good genre novel is a hugely underrated ability, and so many supposed writers of literary fiction make a real hash of it when they try.

NorthWitch · 04/10/2014 12:58

[ Message from MNHQ: This post contains spoilers! ]

I went to see the film never having read the book and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece or anything but still good. I liked Ben Affleck and had some sympathy for the character of Nick and also the way the media circus sprang up around him and his sister. There are some very funny comments as well, e.g., from the female police officer and her sidekick.

I do think there were holes in the plot, e.g., as another poster said when she gets robbed it didn't fit in with the clever scheming bitch portrayed - not very consistent. I thought she was going to end up imprisoned by Desi and that would have been a chilling situation imo. Also thought the police wouldn't just drop the case or that Nick would stay. The idea of them being stuck together forever is a good ending but not represented in a very believable way in the film. Maybe they tried to condense too much info into a film when a mini series might have been better.

OhMyArsingGodInABox · 04/10/2014 14:39

Right, well, thanks for spoiling the ending of the film.

BOFster · 04/10/2014 14:43

Fucking hell Shock. Why would you do that?

comingintomyown · 04/10/2014 16:01

Never read the book

Saw the film and thought the end was ridiculous and was furious for having through two and a half hours to get that ending

ZebraZeebra · 04/10/2014 17:04

I don't understand - where in Northwitch's post is a spoiler?

Mainly just agree with the majority - hateful people but it was also an easy read page turner. Thought it was much more clever and post modern than it actually was! They reminded me of people I used to know at uni - not the sociopath tendencies but all the guff about "the cool girl" and the pseudo-intellectual talk. It made me want to chuck it into a swimming pool and I didn't even have one!

mmack · 04/10/2014 17:28

It always surprises me that more crime novels aren't adapted as films. The Lincoln Lawyer was a very good film and the book was only average. The Denis Lehane books have made great films. The only Harlan Coben adaptation so far has been a French film. I'm not sure if there's even been a Linwood Barclay or James Lee Burke book adaptation. They would be cheap to make too-no special effects.

lavenderhoney · 04/10/2014 17:57

Mmack, no I haven't read it but I will see if the library have it. Or the local charity shops:) always good for a rummage.

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