My Review of "Gone Girl" (Audiobook)

Someday soon, I would like to read a novel that has at least one mostly decent main character. Gone Girl (by Gillian Flynn) is not that novel.

This story explores what might happen when two complete narcissists, one of whom is a sociopathic genius, get married just prior to a major recession and a collapse of the writers’ job market, which claims most of their income and savings. And then they move to the Midwest.

The storyline and plot twists are clever and unique, and Gillian Flynn is an excellent writer. I appreciated that the author maintained a consistency of plot devices. Almost every detail that appeared early in the novel was relevant later on. And the audiobook is ably narrated by two excellent performers: Kirby Heyborne and Julia Whalen.

I generally find well-written thrillers engrossing, and Gone Girl was no exception. True, I disliked the main characters so much that no matter which one prevailed, I would be disappointed. But any well-written novel that keeps my attention as much as this did, and that includes plot twists I did not easily predict, must receive a high rating. And the story ended the only way that it could.

If you like psychological thrillers and don’t mind odious main characters who truly deserve each other, then Gone Girl may be the book for you.