Submitted by JustAnSenileSquid t3_yi1tvz in books
I've read the book a few months ago, but finally came around to see the film. Ultimately they both tell the same story. I will say that the book definitely shifts more in Nick's favor and makes Amy more insane ending with her actually having kid and threatening to kill it if Nick leaves her or tells the truth.
Even though the book justifies Nick staying more than the film I will say both had an ending that didn't feel realistic or satisfying.
Yes. At first I absolutely hated the ending but the more I thought about it the more realistic and gnarly it felt.
There really are people like Amy out there, and Gone Girl is realistic in its depiction of them.
Yeah, if a woman can drown her kids in a bathtub or lie about abuse, any educated woman or man can go to these depths. I guess I felt like Nick's sister who got incredibly frustrated with him at the end.
It's kinda weird I got more pissed at Nick, the obvious victim, than Amy.
>if a woman can drown her kids in a bathtub
I should note that Andrea Yates, the case you're thinking of, is... a way, way, way fucking weirder and sadder case than pop culture has largely determined it to be.
She was suffering from unmedicated bipolar 1 that wasn't taken seriously by... more or less anyone around her, and while her husband was away on a business trip, she fell into a manic episode that caused the delusion that her kids were possessed by demons and that God was going to damn her to Hell if she didn't kill them.
She's one of the very, very few high-profile murderers in... the entire recent history of the first world, really, to successfully use an insanity plea, and will likely spend the rest of her life in a mental institution, and that is in no way a miscarriage of justice.
This isn't really relevant to Gone Girl, I'm just bringing all of this up because that case happened relatively locally to me and pop culture's mutation of it is a little bit of a sore point for me.
I somewhat agree, the ending was just very off putting and not what I expected (I've only read the book) I knew about the big twist with Amy but it still actually caught me in its trap which I thought was interesting and ultimately I gave it 4 stars out of 5 just because I thought the way the book handled tension was amazing and the way it balanced the internalized misogynying both characters had, as well as the interesting narrative of how neurodivergence may affect long term relationships, especially with traditional undertones. That was something I really related to as someone who grew up with two neurodivergent, somewhat traditional parents, whose neurodivergence and traditional mashed together in the worst way possible.
I saw the film first before I read the book, but I’ve got to be honest - I didn’t make it through the film and I found the book to be extremely dull.
Gone Girl, for me, was the sort of book that starts off with a bang. You’re invested in the story in the first few pages and eager to find out what happens next. Then you reach a bump (boring part) and get over it, but the next bump and the next are bigger and soon you can’t get over them anymore. Then your interest is completely lost.
I know most people likely loved the book - the book is probably better than the film, however, as the movie adaption went on a little to long.
How far did you get into it? Because both the book and movie are masterpieces.
I got halfway through the book and about the same for the movie.
Did you get to the big twist? It's right about halfway through and I can't imagine you stopping after that.
If you haven't and you don't know it, I SERIOUSLY suggest picking it up again, the entire thing changes.
I'm with you here. I haven't seen the movie, but I started the book and gave up about a third of the way in. I can tell the book is trying to manipulate me and I don't like knowing that - I don't think the author did a good job with the twist. I also just find it boring.
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I listened to the book over the summer and man what a crazy, crazy book!! I couldn’t decide who was crazier, Nick or Amy…think I finally decided it was Amy.
Astrid-Wish t1_iuhuwx7 wrote
Personally, I liked the book ending. It illustrates exactly what a psychopath can do without being the psychopathic killer. Psychopathy can takeany forms, and that woman...wow.