Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Title: Gone Girl
Author(s): Gillian Flynn
Genre(s): Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Publisher/Date: Weidenfeld & Nicolson / May 24, 2012 
Series: Stand Alone

“Because you can't be as in love as we were and not have it invade your bone marrow. Our kind of love can go into remission, but it's always waiting to return. Like the world's sweetest cancer.” -Amy Dunne

Case Study

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? 

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet? (synopsis from Goodreads)

The Game's Afoot

Woah. Gone Girl is fucked up. Like, reeeeeally fucked up. But in the best kind of way. It's a story about marriage gone wrong. Very wrong.

Only in this story, it's not a love fern that dies.

On the surface, Nick and Amy seem like the perfect couple. She's a cool girl, the ideal sort of wife. He, the doting and dutiful husband. But on their 5th wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing and Nick quickly becomes a suspect, THE suspect, in her disappearance. As the story unravels through Amy's diary entries and Nick's narrative, so do their lies. It turns out that Amy and Nick aren't who we think they are. And this is where things start to go a little crazy.

Yes. Yes I am.

Let me tell you something about Nick and Amy Dunne. SPOILER ALERT: They are HORRIBLE people. I don't think there's a single redeeming quality about either one of them. Nick is a philandering, misogynistic douchenugget and Amy is a narcissistic, needy sociopath. They are AWFUL. Truly AWFUL. Their relationship is AWFUL and if I had the choice to spend my time Amy and Nick or spend the rest of my days in the pit of despair, I'd choose the pit every time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I'd much rather hang out with this guy.

There is seriously so much hate between them and the ridiculous lengths at which they go to torment one another is appalling. Each of them is vindictive and conniving and cruel in their own special sort of way. And this is exactly why they were made for eachother. 

But what's really surprising is that as unlikeable as the characters were, the writing was well-executed and the plot complex enough to keep me guessing, even when the majour twist was otherwise predictable. Flynn had me from the very first page. This is one of those stories where everything you're told and everyone you meet is unpredictable, unreliable. You'll spend the entire time forming theory after theory and it's misleading and frustrating and fucking brilliant. I always felt like I needed to know more, to delve further into the darkness of Nick and Amy's twisted relationship. I needed to be a part of their madness. It's sick. The whole story is sick, the characters are sick and I am sick because I loved every sick minute of it.

Oh god, and don't get me started on the ending. I can't even think about that ending without wanting to hide in a dark corner and pray for sunshine and unicorns and rainbows.

It was that sadistic. And powerful, so powerful. And perfect. Even if it was a total mind-fuck. And anyone who can evoke that sort of reaction out of me definitely earns some mad respect in my book. So well done, Flynn. Very well done.

Summary Prognosis

Gone Girl has to be the most twisted love story ever written. While full of loathsome characters, deception and misdirection, this dark tale will horrify you and satisfy you in all the right ways. Though I didn't find the big reveal to be all that surprising, the ending did catch me off guard. It's quite telling and will evoke a visceral reaction out of the reader, even if it's not a happy one. Gone Girl is the first book in a long time to take me by surprise in the way that it did and I loved every torturous second of it.

Rating: ★★★★★

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Movie Review: Now You See Me by Louis Leterrier

Title: Now You See Me
Director(s): Louis Leterrier
Genre(s): Crime, Mystery
Release Date (USA): May 31, 2013
Rating: PG-13

"Let me warn you. I want you to follow, because no matter what you think you might know, we will always be one step, three steps- seven steps ahead of you, and just when you think you're catching up, that's when we'll be right behind you. And at no time will you be anywhere other than exactly where I want you to be. So come close, get all over me because the closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see.“ -J. Daniel Atlas

Now You See Me pits an elite group of world renown magicians, The Four Horsemen, against a disgruntled FBI agent in an intense game of cat and mouse. With a serious vendetta against the illusionists, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) teams up with Interpol agent, Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) to catch The Horsemen off their guard. The illusionists have been given an impossible mission---to pull off a series of daring heists, stealing from a bevy of corrupt business leaders. And they do, in front of an audience during their show. And like modern-day Robin Hoods, they generously shower the stolen profits upon the unsuspecting crowd, all while staying one step ahead of the law.

I love movies that use real-life magic as a premise, movies like The Illusionist and The Prestige, so when I first saw the trailer for Now You See Me, I was really excited. Now You See Me had quickly become one of my most anticipated movies of the year. And much to my disappointment, it has also become one of the biggest letdowns of the year.

Fuck you, disappointment!

This movie has an all-star cast (Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain & Dave Franco), intriguing premise and SO much potential. So where did it go wrong? Poor character development, a shoddy script and too much time focusing on befuddling the viewer, for starters. It very much reminded me of The Gangster Squad with it's lack of intellectual integrity and try-too-hard attitude. 

They turn Agent Rhodes (Ruffalo) into a total buffoon which makes the whole cat and mouse thing a bust. If you're going to use that angle, the opposing forces need to be equally matched, drawing out the suspense. Such was not the case here. And then you expect to see this group of talented actors shine, instead, it's like attempting to pull too many rabbits out of the hat. It's just a bunch of terrific actors who are totally restricted and undervalued. The draw of the film, The Horsemen, are given less screen time than expected and they're really the ones you want to see. Give me more Woody Harrelson!

Now You See Me promises many things to the viewer but it never delivers upon those promises. It's not cerebrally challenging the way a magic movie should be. The twists and reversals weren't surprising and were completely unbelievable. You didn't see them coming, not because of skillful misdirection as was often implied, but rather because the explanations were crooked and expedient. Especially, near the end as we backtrack through the movie's big events, the reveals are less-than-convincing than if you were to simply believe in real magic. I'll take fantasy over the contrived solutions in this movie.

Now You See Me, like most magic, is all smoke and mirrors with no real substance hiding behind the curtain. Basically, it's just one big pile of bullshit.

Summary Prognosis

Now You See Me is a mix of Robin Hood meets The Prestige---only not quite so good. Sure, it's got all the misdirection that a magic movie should have, but much like bad magic, there's no integrity. Flashy, full of bells and whistles and big personalities, this movie has so much potential. Unfortunately, it completely fails in the execution, rendering it one of my biggest disappointments this year. If you want magic then you should watch The Prestige instead.

Rating: ★★


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Book Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Title: Ten

Author(s): Gretchen McNeil

Genre(s): Horror, Mystery, Young Adult

Publisher/Date: Balzer + Bray / September 18, 2012

Series: Stand Alone

"Vengeance is mine; I will repay.
For the time when their foot shall slide.
For the day of their disaster is near.
And their doom comes swiftly."

Case Study

I’m sorry, but if the most popular girl in school invites you to a super exclusive party at her vacation home on a private island, you don’t say no. This is the position in which Meg and her BFF, Minnie, find themselves. Meg’s mega-crush, TJ, and his hot friend, Ben, are even amongst the guests! A raging party and a potentially steamy weekend without parents—what’s a girl to do? Though their hostess’ arrival is delayed, the party is off to a great start. Minnie and Ben hit it off, leaving Meg to grapple with her hidden feelings for TJ. That is, until the weekend takes a turn for the sinister and a girl mysteriously winds up dead. It appears somebody is on a quest for revenge and all of the guests are targets. Meg makes it her mission to find out if anyone else is lurking on the island or if the killer is one of their own. Can she solve the mystery in time or will she herself become a victim in this deadly game?

The Game’s Afoot

I initially picked up Ten because of all its rave reviews. When people compared it to 90’s slasher films and the works of R.L. Stine, c’mon! I can’t resist that! It’s got Nikki-bait written all over it! Because let’s be honest, murder and mayhem make me tingly all over. But excited as I was, I still had some reservations going in. Ten is loosely based off of the classic mystery novel, And Then There Were None, and I absolutely adored both the book and its movie incarnate. See, the problem is that it’s really hard to live up to the high standards set by the queen of mystery and intrigue, Ms. Agatha Christie. Virtually impossible, if you ask me. I guess I just wanted to like the book more than I actually did. Now that’s not to say Ten wasn’t entertaining but it wasn’t as bold or scary as I initially hoped either.

Perhaps I just suffer from the curse of unmet expectations or maybe it’s because the book skewed a little too young for me, I’m not really sure, but by the end I was kind of done with it. For starters, I had issues with mixing up the two main gals, Meg and Minnie. I often had to flip back several pages just to figure out who was who. As for the other teens, they were thinly veiled characterizations of your typical high school cliques—your popular kids, do-gooders, stoners, jocks and techie types. Honestly, I didn’t really connect with any of them so when they were killed off one by one, it didn’t faze me. Ten kind of reminded me of those really bad slasher flicks where you want to scream at the person on screen because they’re doing that REALLY STUPID thing that’ll obviously get them killed. I really do think I yelled “DON’T GO IN THERE, YOU IDIOT!” and “WHY ARE YOU SPLITTING UP!? DON’T YOU HAVE ANY SELF PRESERVATION AT ALL?!” Yeah, come to think of it, I definitely yelled that one pretty frequently.

But though I had my issues with Ten, the story was short and fast-paced enough to keep me engaged. And yeah, the characters were generalized but it made me sort of feel like I was back in high school again. It was easy to get lost in the trivial drama that plagues our teen years, and honestly, I kind of dug that about this book. McNeil also did a decent job at masking the killer’s identity, though I was able to figure it out a few chapters before the intended reveal. Ten did also have its creepier, on-edge moments that made me want to flick on the light and cuddle up to my dog for safety purposes, but overall, for this horror-junkie, it wasn't enough. I do think Ten will be more effective with a less-horror-enthused, younger audience so I will totally be recommending it to my younger siblings and their hormone-driven friends.

Summary Prognosis

All in all, Ten wasn’t quite as good as I hoped it would be. Fast-paced and entertaining, it certainly had that creep-factor that makes it a good choice for a younger crowd and those who are looking for an easy shudder. Though it’s a good book to get you into the Halloween spirit, if you’re looking for something that packs more of a punch, I recommend reading or watching the original, And Then There Were None.

Rating: ★★★


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