Edition Published April 22nd 2014 by Broadway Books
Goodreads description: 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?
Purchase on Amazon

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book.

The writing is amazing. There’s no doubt about that.

But it’s also depressing, and confusing, and a little bit scary. Actually, very scary.

The plot is most easily described as clever. Interesting. But not interesting in the I -don’t-know-how-else-to-describe-it way. It was actually, really, truthfully interesting. Mind-boggling, even. I really don’t know how Gillian thought of all of these twists and turns and the thrills that make this book a great thriller – she honestly has an outstanding mind to be able to piece everything together the way she did – and then explain it all to the reader.

But that is where my love for this book ends.

The characters are not exactly likeable. Both of them certainly have almost-likeable qualities, but neither of them are actually people I could relate to (in the slightest) or be friends with. I started by being sympathetic with Nick, but then something happened (SPOILER: he cheated. I don’t even have a problem with the fact she cheated with a student. That doesn’t bother me at all. It’s just the fact that I see cheating as wrong, and I saw him as a bad person because of it).

The language just annoyed me. I’m hardly uptight when it comes to swearing, but this just annoyed me after a while. It seemed unnecessary and not needed.

I also disliked is the ending. In a way, it is absolutely perfect for this sick, twisted but amazing book. But it just didn’t appeal to me. It just didn’t seem right – it was almost like (spoilers) Nick and Amy had come completely full circle. Maybe I just viewed it in the wrong way, but that’s how it seemed to me. It made the book entirely pointless.

My rating is…

★★

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽