Gone Girl
After sitting on my bookshelf for half a year, I finally decided to pick up Gone Girl. This was the second book I have read as part of my new years resolution and honestly, I made a great choice picking up this book. Warning: Spoilers for the book and film below.
Gone Girl definitely did not disappoint. On top of the thrilling story which kept my gripped with every page turn, I'm a huge lover of plot twists, and this book supplied probably the biggest twist I've ever read. I had no idea what had happened to Amy, suspecting Desi, Nick's father, and even Nick (cliché, I'm sorry). When it Amy revealed that this was her plan all along, I had to put the book down for a second and just collect myself. I had a large 'what in the name of' moment, completely gob-smacked and confused. Of course, this only willed me to read on and after that, I pretty much read any time I could.
One of my favourite parts about the story was the way it was written from both Nick's present point of view, and Amy's past 'diary self' and her present point of view, alternating between the two. I felt this really helped get both sides of the situation across, especially the way some chapters flowed from what the previous character was saying into the other one, only in a different context. Admittedly, I was fooled by Amy's diary, but this got me more into the story to see what else she was capable of. Amy was so brilliant and terrifying, but her intelligence infuriated me - in a good way - because I felt like I should have considered her running away, but was convinced not to by her diary.
My favourite character was definitely Margo (Go). She could be funny, particularly when she sprayed all of the reporters with a hose, but I related to her because like me, a lot of things throughout the story made her go 'what in the name of'. I also felt her frustration towards Nick, especially at the end when she couldn't understand how he could bear to stay with Amy. My least favourite character was Desi, but only because he was very creepy, so much so that the hairs stuck up on the back of my neck when he entered the scenes.
As there is a movie version of the book, I watched it so I could do a little comparison. Overall I found the movie really enjoyable and was pleasantly surprised at how similar to the book they had managed to keep it. The only parts I missed from the book were Hilary Handy, as she backed up the psycho Amy story, Betsy Bolt (Tanner's wife), who had a sassy personality and was the one to throw the jelly beans at Nick, and the poisoned vomit Amy kept when she poisoned herself with anti freeze because even though Nick gets rid of it, it added to the hold she has over him staying.
As a cat person, I was definitely glad to see more of Bleeker the cat in the film. In the book I felt he was almost completely forgotten through the majority of the story, but in the movie he was featured here and there, which was nice. However, I would like to have seen Hannibal and the evidence which was Amy's purse featured, however I understand that only so much can fit into a movie. Unfortunately, while I think Neil Patrick Harris played the role of Desi perfectly, being almost too creepy, he just didn't look creepy enough for me.
Out of both the book and the movie, I personally preferred the book. I felt that with the other pieces of evidence and characters, it filled the story out more and helped to ensure a longer build up the the big twist.
