I am very late to Gone Girl. I knew the general reputation of the book and was familiar with the idea that it contained a major twist, but I had never actually read it.
I enjoyed the mystery and suspense. The book exists on controlling what the reader knows and when we know it. The shifting perspectives and gradual revelations kept me interested and made me continually reconsider what I thought was happening.
My biggest problem with the book, though, is that I disliked … everyone in it.
There is usually someone in a mystery or thriller that I find myself rooting for. Maybe it is the person trying to solve the crime, the innocent spouse, or simply the character who seems to be making reasonable decisions while everyone else is behaving badly.
That person does not really exist here.
Instead, I spent much of the book thinking about how awful these people are. They are manipulative, selfish, dishonest and generally unpleasant. Even when I was interested in what was happening to them, I wasn't necessarily hoping things would work out for them.
The twist is effective, even if some of the impact is lessened when you already know the book is famous for having one. Still, I appreciated how the story was constructed and how as the reader, my assumptions were questioned.
I think a book can be a good read even when you would prefer never to meet any of its characters in real life.
