Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Gone Girl

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

352 reviews

gothicheroine's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An excellent story filled with terrible, terrible people.

Amy Elliott Dunne is a figure that still resonates with a lot of people. Her rage, the discomforting sense of injustice is a familiar song for many women.
Yet, perfect Amy is not so perfect. Amy is a wonderful, twisted monster that makes a brilliant villain for the most part.

She doesn't forgive and she does not forget. Her final lines in the book are especially chilling, and I'm surprised a lot of people never focus much on them.

Still, when I reread this story I had decide to attempt let go my love for this brilliant monsterand try to look things from her shitty husband, Nick's perspective.

Nick Dunne is horrible. Horrible in a way that is all too... understable, too forgiving.
it's easy to understand Nick, to sympathize.
He's a shitty husband who stopped trying in his marriage. Life became difficult; fired from a job, a sick-soon-dead mom, an angry wife...

A lot can relate to most of these. When there are so many struggles it become difficult to be pleasant, and even more so when you have a partner who loooves mind games.

Still, Nick made choices and those choices had consequences - which is had the plot is built up on.

In the end, there will always be the famous debate Amy vs Nick: who is the worst? Who should have "won"?

Both go through a character arc. The things they wanted from the beginning change by the end of the story. So I'd rather say they both technically "won" in a way

In the matters of "worst person" contest. It relies on your priorities.
Amy is clearly a mentally unstable person who is dangerous and won't hesitate to destroy. Her anger, her passion, her yearning are a seperate category that readers can sympathize and relate.

Nick won't physically ruin someone the way Amy does. But he's willing to wear a mask of deception to conceal his own insecurities, and nothing he says is ever the truth. His love is fickle, he's spineless and lost and he doesn't particularly enjoy the person he has become.

Both Amy & Nick crave to be seen and loved. The difficulty comes with not liking each other's real selves. But that's alright. Because by the end they're both willing to put up a play of the perfect marriage

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barelylivingdeadgirl's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

When I finally got into it, the plot was interesting enough to have me reading pretty quickly. I liked the focus on the characters over the plot, which is unusual in thriller books. The plot was clever and the twists were alright, but not as good as I hoped. I was underwhelmed after seeing the rave reviews, but I understand why people like it. I just didn't love it. I think it could have been much shorter as well.

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ineedrhythm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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katie0528's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

God I forgot how freaking good this book is. It's very much dated, with the characters laid off magazine writers who lost their job to the internet and the 2008 crash, but the twists and turns are so good. The first half of the book alternates between the day Nick Dunne discovers his wife Amy has gone missing and her diary detailing the early days of their relationship. The second half is Nick, buckling under his secrets and police pressure, and Amy's own story of what happened that day. It reminds me of the Interrupter's song lyric "I'm a match, she's kerosene."

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sueshi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lethargicbat's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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dontreadthelastpage1989's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

it took me over 2 years to finish this book for a couple of reasons.
1. i'm a mood reader who got in a few reading slumps in the meantime and i find it hard to pick up a book again when i bc of random circumstances couldn't or didn't continue reading lately and i struggle with motivating myself to read longer books (over 300 pages). this is due to my personality.
2. i had already seen the movie and loved it but this also meant i knew the plot roughly so i didn't expect any twists or surprising factors, which of course took away a little motivation.
having said this, this is one of the most well-written books i've read. me having seen the movie and knowing what would happen was why i didn't have as much an urge to read it and find out (as i already knew everything), but if i hadn't known anything i would've finished it in a rather short amount of time i'm sure! it still managed to be enticing and suspenseful just because of how interesting its style was. the storyline is brutal and genius and morally challenging and in a way i'm happy i already knew what was awaiting bc of the film. i would recommend to read the book and the watch the movie or if you've seen the movie to still give the book a chance because owning this story on paper felt so special. if you considered reading it but think you don't have to because you know what happens, i would still say give it a try as gillian flynn's way with words totally made up for my prior knowledge. gonna rewatch the movie now because what the fuck (( almost all of the trigger warnings, please be careful with this and kind to yourself ))

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