I read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It won the Dagger Award and was an Edgar nominee for Best First Novel, a BookSense pick, and a Barnes & Noble Discover selection. I didn’t like it. It was a slow read and at the end I wondered what the point was. The author flirted around with the problem of sexual abuse and self-mutilation by cutting but nothing was specific.
I say if you’re going to write a book about something shocking do it. Don’t go all The-Sound-And-The-Fury on us.
So with trepidation I read her third novel gone “best seller” Gone Girl and I have to say I am very impressed. The novel uses its three-part structure well. The two main characters, Nick and Amy Dunne, take turns by chapter telling their stories in first person. Amy Dunne disappears on the fifth wedding anniversary. Nick Dunne is shocked. A few chapters later we can’t help but get suspicious of him. It looks as if his wife has been murdered and the crime scene staged to look like an abduction. I will not go any further into the plot because the reader needs to discover all the plot twists alone to really appreciate the book. In case you were wondering how we can share the wife’s perspective if she is dead – by reading her diary.
Gone Girl is an excellent study in human nature, and specifically the scary traits of the psychotic. That a female author wrote a man’s perspective so well is impressive. It is almost as if two writers are writing the book instead of two fictional characters.
I recommend the book. It is good.
I’m so sorry. I have this same problem with WordPress when I’m trying to get comments from other wordpress bloggers. If you press the “notify me when new comments are added” at any time this sends multiply comments to your inbox that you don’t want. The only solution is for you not to press that button. This is a WordPress glitch.