Now this is not the kind of book I would normally read, but I saw it came out in cinemas a couple of months ago and I thought: hey, I should really read it before watching it. Also this has made me realise how I seem to have a knack for  reading books that are made into films – ehh I read other books too, I swear!

One thing  I loved about this haunting murder mystery is the distinct tones used to distinguish between the character’s different personalities. This may not make sense to you if you haven’t read it, but it really adds to emphasise how truly ‘messed up’ Amy is. While my oblivious self was really annoyed at the beginning at what seemed like Amy’s total stupidity and blindness when it came to her husband, the change of tone in the second half came as a huge shock – like literally, I was left mouth-opened on the bus!  I also loved the switching between Amy and Nick’s POVs as it really gave you a sense of how each of them viewed the same things and why they chose to behave in a certain way.

An interesting idea that was brought up in Gone Girl is the existence of this supposed ‘Cool Girl’ – women pretending to be the “perfect woman” in order to appease men. This seems bizarre knowing how far we’ve come in terms of women’s rights, and giving that up just so we can go back to simply being an ideology craved by men is playing right into the patriarchy. As Gillian Flynn succinctly put it in the conversation section at the end of my copy of the book (a great little section by the way): “to pretend to be today’s ‘Cool Girl’ is just as restricting and confining as it was for women back in the 1950s who were forced into the ‘Happy Homemaker’ role.” I wonder if women actually feel the need to become a different person in order to impress men and if men truly go the whole of their relationship with this woman unaware that she is a ‘fake’.

Another thought touched upon is how much the internet has changed the opinions we abide by, and especially in terms of the legal system. Now everyone, regardless of whether they’re involved in the issue or not, as long as it’s in the public eye, will have an opinion and will take a side . How we view people in the limelight is largely influenced by social media -both in how the media portrays them, and how other people are responding to them. This can be a big issue in notorious cases when it comes to the very traditional (maybe too old-fashioned?) jury system.  Are the decisions made based on fact and evidence or on preconceptions? This will affect the overall outcome greatly.

Overall I loved this novel and the twists and turns it took me on, despite the fact that I found the ending very frustrating, it was a thrilling read for the most part. Without giving away too many spoilers, the decision made by Nick in the end is not a choice I would have made. Although the newborn child may have made a difference, I honestly felt like it completely contradicted with the resolution that he took the whole novel to come to.