Gone Girl (novel)

Gone Girl is a crime thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn, published by Crown Publishing Group in June 5, 2012. The book became popular, making the New York Times Best Seller list.
The sense of suspense in the novel comes from whether Nick Dunne is responsible for the disappearance of his wife Amy. Critics acclaimed the book for its use of unreliable narration, plot twists, and suspense.
A film adaptation, with a screenplay by Flynn herself, was released on October 3, 2014. Directed by David Fincher, with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in lead roles, the film achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim.

Plot summary

Part 1

The narrative alternates between the point of view of Nick and Amy Dunne. Nick's narration begins shortly after arriving home on his fifth wedding anniversary to find Amy is missing from their home; there are signs of a struggle. Amy's narration comes in the form of her diaries and follows the earlier stages of their relationship.
The diary entries describe how Amy met Nick in New York City, where they both worked as writers. Nick was a journalist who wrote movie and TV reviews, while Amy wrote personality quizzes for women's magazines. After two years of dating, they married. The couple lived in a beautiful brownstone home in Brooklyn where they were happy.
In 2009, both Nick and Amy lost their jobs following the Great Recession. Amy's parents Rand and Marybeth, meanwhile, had written a successful children's book series called "Amazing Amy," based on Amy's life experiences. However, when sales from the books declined and Rand and Marybeth didn't curb their spending, they also started facing financial issues. Their solution was to ask Amy for money from her trust fund, which made Nick unhappy.
Eventually, Amy and Nick relocate to Nick's hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to care for Nick's sick mother, Maureen. With permission, Nick uses what remains of Amy's trust fund to open a bar with his twin sister, Margo or "Go". Nick also finds work teaching journalism at a local college. Their marriage deteriorates; Amy describes how she hates being a housewife in the suburbs and resents Nick for making her move. Her diary comes to portray Nick as an aggressive, moody, idle, and threatening husband, and indicates that she fears for her life.
In Nick's narrative, he views Amy as a needlessly difficult, antisocial, controlling perfectionist, and an unwelcome obligation, but he is concerned about her disappearance. Nick becomes a suspect in the investigation, led by Detectives Rhonda Boney and Jim Gilpin, and Nick downplays their relationship issues. During the investigation, Nick faces intense media scrutiny, exacerbated by his lack of obvious emotion and apparent flippant attitude. It is also revealed by Amy's supposed best friend from the neighborhood, Noelle Hawthorne, that Amy was pregnant, which Nick was unaware of. Nick has serious credit card debt, which he claims to have been unaware of, and Amy's life insurance was recently increased by Nick, which he claims was her idea. It becomes apparent to Nick that his wife had hidden secrets from him.

Part 2

It is revealed that Nick and Amy are unreliable narrators. Nick has admitted that he is cheating on his wife with Andie, his former college student, and intended to divorce Amy; he hid this from investigators to avoid suspicion. Amy's narration shifts to the present day, revealing that she is alive and staged her own disappearance to go into hiding. After discovering Nick's affair, she became angry at his disregard for her and planned extensively for a year to fake her death and frame Nick as revenge for wasting her life. Her pregnancy, years of diary entries, and other evidence were fabricated in order to incriminate Nick.
Nick becomes aware of Amy's plan based on vague clues that she has left under the guise of their traditional anniversary treasure hunt. He is led to Go's woodshed where he discovers exorbitant purchases that Amy made with credit cards in his name to further incriminate him. The shed also contains Amy's anniversary gift of Punch and Judy puppets, indicating that she expects Nick to receive the death penalty for her murder.
Amy's plan to monitor the investigation through the news media is foiled when she is robbed at the motel where she has holed up. Desperate, she seeks help from her wealthy ex-boyfriend, Desi Collings, with whom she had a manipulative relationship in her youth. Desi, still enamored, hides her in his lake house but becomes possessive and controlling, making Amy feel trapped.
Nick and his new lawyer, Tanner Bolt, work to change public perception of Nick through an interview with a popular talk show host, during which Nick pretends to be apologetic about his infidelity and failings as a husband. He is well-received, but the police have discovered the woodshed, which also contains violent porn videos. Amy's faked diary chronicling abuse from Nick is also found in his father's old house. The police find the missing handle from the puppets, bearing Amy's blood. Nick is arrested.
At Desi's house, Amy sees the TV interview and is impressed by Nick's performance of a perfect husband, and is convinced that the two of them uniquely understand and are matched to each other. She mutilates her own body so that it appears Desi has been holding her captive, then seduces him and murders him.

Part 3

Amy returns to North Carthage, where Nick is recently out on bond. She fabricates a story for investigators that she was kidnapped from home and imprisoned by Desi before killing him to escape; her diary entries were melodramatic and she is glad to be back with Nick. Nick, Detective Boney, and Go know she is lying but have no proof. Nick is forced to return to married life with Amy as the media storm dies down.
Amy begins writing her memoir of the fabricated events, and Nick privately begins writing an exposé of Amy's deceptions. Amy uses Nick's semen, which they had saved at a fertility clinic, to inseminate herself, and forces him to delete his book by threatening to keep him from their unborn child. Nick complies, dedicating himself to the role of a perfect husband. On the eve of Amy's due date, Nick momentarily drops the act and reveals the pity he feels for Amy, deeply unsettling her.

Characters

Amy Elliott Dunne: The title character, who vanishes from her home at the start of the novel. She was the source of inspiration for her psychologist parents' "Amazing Amy" children's book series, and she enjoyed a wealthy childhood. She made a living in New York as a writer of personality quizzes. She is intelligent, beautiful, charming, strategic, and has a history of manipulating and incriminating those around her and posing herself as a victim. She places great importance in the appearance and perception of things, and knows how to manipulate others using this. After they moved to Missouri, Amy began resenting Nick and her isolated, reduced, lifestyle. Upon realizing that Nick was being unfaithful, Amy was enraged at his disregard for the effort she had made to become the perfect "cool girl" wife he wanted to keep him happy in their relationship. Amy feels that he wasted her life and wants to walk away consequence free after taking advantage of Amy and not holding up his side of the bargain. Amy then spent a year developing a complex revenge plan to frame him for her murder. She planned to wait until Nick was found guilty before drowning herself in the Gulf of Mexico, so it would appear her body floated down the Mississippi River. After seeing on TV that Nick acknowledges his wrongdoing and that he is aware of what she has done, Amy decides that he is capable of acting as the perfect husband for her in return, and wants to return to their marriage. She kills Desi Collings, her old boyfriend, in order to return home and convince the public that she was kidnapped and raped by Desi. Amy ultimately blackmails Nick into staying with her by inseminating herself with his sperm, and is satisfied to maintain their image as a perfect couple.
Lance Nicholas Dunne: Raised in a working-class household with a verbally abusive father, a mother who eventually divorced his father, and a twin sister, Margo, with whom he is close. Nick worries about the influence his misogynistic father has had on his personality, and is very concerned with being likable. He worked as a journalist after moving to New York City. He and Amy returned to his hometown, where he became increasingly distant from Amy and depressed from the stress of his mother's cancer and father's Alzheimer's disease. Amy gave him money to open "The Bar" with his twin sister. All of these hardships and responsibilities cause Nick to grow lazy and check out of his marriage. He became apathetic with Amy and had an affair with one of his students, Andie. Nick's lack of reciprocal effort to please Amy in their marriage enrages her. After Amy's disappearance, Nick realizes her plan to frame him, and grasps the extent of her sociopathy. He manipulates her into coming home by saying what he knows she wants to hear during television interviews. When Amy returns, Nick tried to convince her to divorce him, but she refuses, requiring him to maintain the image of their healed marriage and permanently keep up efforts to appear as the perfect husband. He ultimately resigns to stay with her after she threatens to make his child hate him or falsely accuse him of abuse.
Jim Gilpin: A detective who participated in Nick's investigation. He is described by Nick as having "fleshy bags under his eyes" and "scraggly white whiskers in his mustache."
Rhonda Boney: A detective who participated in Nick's investigation. She has a younger brother whom she "dotes on," and is the mother of a teenaged daughter, Mia. She is described by Nick as "ugly," although he says he has an "affinity" for "ugly women." She does not want to believe Nick is really guilty despite the seeming evidence piling on the case and gives him the benefit of the doubt until things really take a turn for the worse. When Amy returns, Nick tells Boney about Amy's confession but nobody is able to find enough evidence against her.
Tanner Bolt: Nick's lawyer, a defense attorney who specializes in defending husbands accused of murdering their spouses.
Betsy Bolt: Tanner's wife who helps condition Nick to perform better during media interviews. Her main way of conditioning him is by throwing jelly beans at him when he seems stiff and unnatural.
Andie Hardy: A woman in her early 20s, who has a sexual dalliance with Nick. Andie met Nick as a student in his magazine-writing class and their affair began 15 months before Amy's disappearance. She appears genuinely in love with Nick and becomes resentful when he abandons her due to Amy's disappearance, as the affair would make him appear obviously suspect. Andie goes on a talk show and tells the story of their affair at the same time that Nick confesses to his infidelity during a separate interview.
Margo Dunne: Nick's twin sister, with whom he owns a bar and has a close relationship. She remains loyal to Nick throughout the murder investigation, despite her suspicions.
Hilary Handy: Amy's former friend and "Sidekick Suzy" during freshman year of high school. She was accused of pushing Amy down a flight of stairs.
Tommy O'Hara: A humor columnist that casually dated Amy seven years ago. He shares his side of the story to Nick about Amy's rape charge against him.
Desi Collings: Amy's boyfriend in high school, who is wealthy and was obsessed with Amy. In their youth, she manipulated her parents into thinking that he was stalking her and overdosed in her bedroom, but has privately stayed in touch with him for years. When Amy is robbed of all her money, she reaches out to Desi for financial help and manipulates him into falling in love with her by using his pompous nature against him. However, rather than giving her money, he brings her to a summer home where he does not give her keys or security codes; there is evidence that he had been previously planning or waiting for her to move in. Desi is not as easy to manipulate nor as generously in love with her as hoped and controls Amy's diet and exercise to return her to the polished appearance he prefers, while requiring her to indulge his petty savior complex fantasies. Amy quickly grows resentful of his controlling disguised as caring behavior. Her last night at Desi's house, she seduces him, puts sleeping pills in his cocktail, and kills him. She later revealed that she had been abusing herself with a wine bottle and tying twine around her wrists to leave marks in order to make it look like Desi kidnapped and raped her. Desi's mother remained convinced of his innocence, but nobody is able to find evidence of Amy's guilt.
Jeff: Amy's neighbor in Ozark that she meets first. She describes him as a nice guy who keeps odd hours and returns with a lot of fish. She later discovers that he resells stolen fish.
Greta: Ozark resident that moved in after Amy to get away from an abusive relationship. Amy describes Greta, Jeff and herself as an odd crew in a strange place that have become fast friends. This is short lived and she attacks Amy while Jeff stands in the back. They both call her bluff about calling the cops and take off with all her money.