Initial Impressions 7/25/15: WELL. I feel better now that I've read one of the most talked-about books AND managed to avoid spoilers for it (almost entirely since I had my theories and all of them were contradictory to each other). 
 I guess I can say... that book was just messed up on ALL levels. No, really. You can imagine characters being messed up but just when you think you've hit the most shocking thing, something else happens and it's like "Huh. I honestly didn't see that coming." because you just can't predict these things. 
 I think it would have been better if I had read it a looooong time ago and was able to go into it TOTALLY blind. Obviously that's the more shocking effect. But I also like that despite there being a movie out now and so many people reading it and seeing kiiinda spoilers that I still managed to be surprised by so much! 
 The writing was clever with the way the book was structured and all of the twists it really managed to have. There were some times though when I was less than impressed (the beginning, mostly) and the writing didn't feel as good. I wasn't thrilled ALL the time but it was a really interesting (I can't say GOOD because omg so messed up haha) story and I was definitely hooked towards the end. I really truly did not know how it would end! 
 Full review as originally posted on The Book Addict's Guide: YES, this was my first read of GONE GIRL and whew! I cannot tell you how hard I worked to avoid all spoilers until I finally read the book. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy, especially once the movie came out! I made it to this point with only one minor spoiler that I didn't even understand so thankfully it didn't affect my read at all! 
 I'm sure if you're reading this review, chances are you've already read GONE GIRL or at least know very well what it's about so I won't hash out the details. I'm sure you also know that this book is BANANA SANDWICH and it actually made me wonder if it's crazy in a good way or crazy in a bad way. Obviously you sort of know what's going on before the book even begins (that's why you picked it up, I'm assuming!) -- Nick's wife Amy goes missing and madness ensues. I won't get into the details there but what happens throughout this chain of events is really eye-opening for every character in this book. You really learn everyone's true nature and though some have some more demons than others, it's really interesting to see how Amy's disappearance and subsequent events really change (or reveal) things about everyone. 
 I had dozens of theories about what happened to Amy (just ask Andi -- I emailed and texted her throughout my read about EVERYTHING). I think it's kind of a given now since so many people have read the book that there's some sort of twist in the book, but that's about as much as I knew going in. Still, the whole time I braced myself for it (and theorized -- these were my many ideas) so it wasn't a huge surprise when that twist was finally revealed (and one of my theories was right. Naturally. I had about a hundred). What I will say is that I'm very surprised with several other twists. They weren't necessarily anything big but I was quite impressed with how many things I didn't see coming! I've been a mystery-lover for quite a while so I have a tendency to guess at twists and surprise endings so I sort of expected pieces of GONE GIRL to be predictable but there were still so many places that my brain just didn't even go that I still had plenty of surprises left in the book! 
 Some of the things that happen in GONE GIRL are straight up appalling -- from a physical and mental standpoint -- but it was also kind of like that terrible train wreck that you can't stop watching. Some aspects of the characters were plain frightening but others really made me step back and see those pieces in my own life and in a way, that was even scarier! 
 GONE GIRL wasn't quite a five-star book for me but I was definitely hooked the whole time! I did feel a bit of lull in the writing towards the beginning but I also feel that was partially because I kept waiting for things to start spiraling out of control! It's definitely an interesting book and messed up on so many levels but I also definitely understand the buzz and pull! I'm curious to see what Gillian Flynn's other books are like (still dark, but in different ways, I've heard) and am anxious to read more!