Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Summary
When Amy Dunne vanishes on her fifth wedding anniversary, suspicion quickly falls on her husband Nick, and the novel alternates between his increasingly desperate present day narration and Amy's diary entries before a shocking mid book reversal upends everything the reader thought they understood about their marriage. Flynn dissects the performances spouses put on for each other and for the world, building a ferociously plotted thriller around the corrosive gap between a marriage's public face and its private reality. The novel became a massive bestseller and reshaped the domestic thriller genre that followed in its wake.
Historical Context & Significance
The novel was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel but lost to Dennis Lehane's Live by Night at the 2013 ceremony. Flynn's book nonetheless became one of the best selling and most culturally influential thrillers of the decade.