Megs

Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
The blurb:On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

My rating: 4/5
Tagged: 101 things in 1001 days, contemporary, crime, mystery, thriller
Date I started this book: 26/05/16
Date I finished this book: 30/05/16

What did I think? I am very late to the Gone Girl party. Despite the rave reviews, the movie and the office colleagues' discussions, I have managed to steer clear of any spoilers and came to the book with no idea about the plot twists.

I enjoyed it - I found it an above average thriller. I particularly enjoyed going on the ride when one of the protagonists goes to the cabins and the oh-oh feeling you get when a story takes an unexpected turning. I even found certain phrases quite resonant eg. "My value has decreased" in one of Amy's diary entries. I don't know why it struck me but it encapsulated her thoughts then about that particular subject.

Yes it does not have a conventional ending but even that made it interesting for me - though I would have found it more satisfying if it had.

All in all, a decent page turner which I enjoyed but will probably not be rereading for some time

A nice and depressing topic here. A book that disappointed me. It took me a while to think of one but I guess the answer really has to be The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I read the blurb and was really intrigued.
On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.

Then I read the first page of this book and thought it would be a good read. The language was beautiful and the writer clearly has talent but... well, if you've read the blurb then you've basically read all you need to know about it!

All I wanted to know about was what happened to Phoebe. The chapters about her life were interesting but I would have liked to have seen more. Norah's life was so boring I didn't care about her, and nothing was resolved whilst David was alive, so what was the point of having them in the book? More could have been made of that side of the plot if David actually met his daughter and Norah found out whilst he was alive. Paul doesn't even get a voice until near the end of the book.

It really was a shame :(