It seems an absolute AGE since I posted anything and this has been down to two large books, one of which I have finally finished. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, has been a huge best seller and has also been made into a film, so I was looking forward to getting stuck into it. However, it does not live up to the hype. It started well enough with Nick Dunne coming home to find his house in disarray and Amy, his wife of 5 years, missing. When the crime scene is dissected and neighbours and friends interviewed, it turns out that all has not been rosy within the marriage of late. Suspicion soon falls upon Nick that he has murdered her and disposed of the body. As Nick tries to defend himself against the police, the press and the public, more damning evidence turns up. But is Amy dead, and if she is, who did it? The narrative is almost like a diary, switching between the present day for Nick and the past for Amy. I felt this was a clever device at first but it did get a bit tedious, although maybe that was because both central characters were thoroughly unlikeable. In fact, there were very few likeable characters throughout. I found it slow going and was becoming a bit demoralised by the nastyness both in the language and situations and was seriously contemplating giving up when, halfway through the book, there was a great twist and the plot lurched forward, giving me some hope. Yes, I thought, at last we have finally got going. But no, it soon descended back into the totally unbelievable, distasteful and flaccid exposition of the previous chapters. ARGH! This book could have been a slick thriller, but it just ground on and on. So much effort for such little reward ... I am actually struggling to remember exactly how this book ended, which just about sums it up!
My STAR rating: TWO.
Length: 512 print pages (felt like twice that!)
Price I paid: 99p
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.
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