Gone Girl Book Summary

Gone Girl – A Deceptive Fabrication

Brief Summary:

As a crime thriller novel, Gone Girl is spectacularly written by Gillian Flynn. She has presented the story where a wife (Amy) morphs her disappearance and death to get her husband (Nick) punished. The reason is that she found him to be cheating and wants revenge. In fact, the twists and turns in the story bring Amy back to Nick to continue their married life. 

Summary of Important Ideations:

Character Recognition:

The story of Gone Girl revolves around a couple with Nick Dunne as husband and Amy Dunne as his wife. They both enjoy a love-hate relationship where Amy plans her disappearance and Nick cheats on his wife. Along with them, Jim Gilpin comes to the forefront as a detective hired by Nick to investigate Amy’s disappearance. Besides Jim, Rhonda Boney is another detective who helped in Nick’s case. Indeed, the climax introduces Desi Collings as Amy’s college boyfriend whose house became her hideout. 

Blossoming of Lovely Moments:

The early stages of Nick and Amy’s relationship showcase both meeting in New York. Nick is presented as a journalist writing for TV reviews or movies, while Amy is known for writing personality quizzes for women's magazines. After they fell for each other, Nick and Amy decided to get married and started living in Brooklyn. Everything seemed good until both lost their jobs in the 2009 recession era. Later on, their financial condition worsened when Amy’s parents came to them for money. Indeed, the sales of her mother’s book “Amazing Amy” declined which forced Amy’s parents to ask for help. 

Relocation and Unfavorable Twists:

Nick and Amy found it difficult to meet the ends, so they relocated to North Carthage in Missouri. Besides the financial crunch, they shifted to take care of Nick’s sick mother. As life goes on, Amy feels irritated being a housewife and finds her husband to be cheating on her. This provokes Amy to forge her kidnapping and murder. In fact, her purpose is to get Nick behind bars as a part of her revenge for cheating. As the situations change, she takes help from her ex-boyfriend Desi Collings. 

When the investigation began, things started to come as astonishment like Amy’s pregnancy, and Nick’s arrest. She learns about such proceedings from the news channel and feels impressed by how Nick becomes apologetic. This makes her yearn to return to her married life. But, Amy feels trapped in the house of Desi Collings. To break free, she had to trap him back, seduce him, and murder him. After this, Amy returns to North Carthage where Nick has been out on a special bond. Though Nick goes through a mixed bag of emotions, he welcomes her. 

She tries to fabricate the proceedings by presenting her as being kidnapped by Desi Collings and having to kill him in defense to run away. Neither Nick nor Detective Boney believed her. But, they do not have any proof against her and retorted back. So, life tends to settle down for both Nick and Amy. Furthermore, both Nick and Amy started writing diary entries stating about their past experiences. But, there stood a difference as Nick had planned to expose Amy through his writings. 

Projection of Nick’s and Amy’s Characters:

In Gone Girl, Nick is projected as the husband who does not bother much about his responsibilities and depends on Amy's trust fund for managing expenses. Besides this, he cheats on Amy and finds it a casual jerk. On the other hand, Amy is irritated as a housewife and wants to work her way. Also, she is faithful and feels humiliated by Nick’s infidelity.