Gone Girl, of the so-called domestic noir genre (check wikipedia for more details), is a voyeuristic journey into disaster. While you might find Flynn’s characters unbecoming, there’s enough drama and intrigue to keep you reading. We begin with Nick Dunne, our Girl’s husband, who has just reported her missing to the police. Of course, being the husband, Nick is suspect number one. As he tries to search for his wife, work with the police, and deal with his wife Amy’s parents, Nick’s every move is […]
I think the darkest place is Gillian Flynn’s mind
I read Gone Girl when it first came out and loved it; Sharp Objects a few months which was great but not as good as Gone Girl, and I just finished Dark Places which I think was the weakest of the three, but still a good thriller. Gillian Flynn has a talent for both plotting and writing, but her main characters tend to be incredibly unlikable. Libby Day, of Dark Places, was the worst offender of the three (Day, Camille Preaker of Sharp Objects and of course, Amazing Amy from Gone Girl). Although […]
Darkplaces
Twenty-five years ago Libby Day’s family was murdered in the middle of the night. She escaped and named her older brother, Ben, as their murderer. After depleting the fund set up for her through donations and managed by a local banker Libby is desperate for some quick cash. She finds Lyle and his “kill club” who are obsessed with finding the true killer of her family; and they are willing to pay Libby to find the information. It’s a convenient set up but it works […]
This book will creep the sh*t out of you
It wasn’t hard for me to determine that Sharp Objects (2006) is the creepiest and most disturbing of Gillian Flynn’s novels to date. And that’s saying a lot. Although I believe Flynn’s writing improves in her future books, I was impressed and disturbed by her ability to create a setting so dark and haunting. Camille Preaker, is a 30-something, struggling reporter in Chicago when her editor sends her back to her tiny hometown to cover the potentially sensational disappearance of an adolescent girl–shortly after another girl was […]
Awful people are fascinating people
In TV crime procedurals, the first part of the obvious formula includes the introduction of a red herring character, someone who is too obvious, and the detectives will waste a bunch of time trying to stick that person to the wall before finding a breakthrough that leads them to the actual suspect. Gillian Flynn’s version of this is that EVERYONE is obvious. All of the characters have the means and the disposition to have done it, if not the exact motive, but who needs motive when […]
Caution: Do not read this book at bedtime
I pretty much enjoyed Gone Girl, although (like many people), I did not care for the ending. I was on the fence about reading anything else by Gillian Flynn, not so much because of that, in fact I’m not really sure why I was reluctant, although one thing that threw me is that after all the dark twistiness of Gone Girl, she ended the book with an acknowledgements section that read like a high school yearbook dedication. That was the twistiest bit of all for me. […]
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