Book· 2012· Thriller

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl: 1 recorded work traces back to it.

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Gone Girl

Film · 2014

AdaptationHIGH

Fincher's film, screenplay by Gillian Flynn adapting her own novel, which is why it keeps the structural trick most adaptations would flatten: the alternating his-and-hers narration, and the mid-book reveal that Amy's diary is a fabrication written to be found. The film reproduces that with voiceover and a hard tonal break at the reveal. The ending is the novel's, not a softened one, which was widely expected to change and did not.

About the work

Gone Girl

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 from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. 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? Gone Girl is a psychological thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn, published by Crown Publishing Group on June 5, 2012. The book became popular, making the New York Times Best Seller list.