The third book that I’ve finished in the past month or so, is not SF at all. Instead, it’s a mystery. Or is it? If you don’t know, I’m not telling:
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This is a story of a love affair between Nick and Amy, only Nick is really Lance, who is really just kind of self-centered in a writerly sort of way, and Amy is really … well … Amy is really intense in a screwed up, super-nice sorta way and until she winds up missing one day after being involved in what appears to have been a violent attack in her living room. This sets off a series of revelations that make the first half of the book something really remarkable. I mean, seriously, reading the first half of this book was, for me, just flat-out-fun.
The last half is just as interesting, and the plot just as twisted, but the ending is a bit abrupt for my taste. Your mileage may vary, though, as a scan of web reviews seems to say it’s a love-it-or-hate-it ending, which I can totally see. My two cents worth is that I left feeling like I was missing something important about what these two characters had to say.
Among the things I enjoyed about this story, though, was that Gillian Flynn draws her male and female characters with unmerciful clarity, leaning on stereotype in unrepentant and inventive ways to fuel the story.
A solid read.