Gone Girl

I didn't really like this book.  A lot of people are reading it and talking about it and it has a long holds list at the library, so when I finally got hold of a copy I was looking forward to reading it. It is the story of a young couple from Manhattan, Nick and Amy, who both lose their jobs and move to the Midwest (near his family) for a fresh start. Supposedly they are going to help take care of his parents, but that never really happens. And then, on their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears. At first it seems like an abduction, but then Nick becomes a suspect and from then on the story takes a lot of twists and turns and you never are quite sure what to believe. The media is involved, of course, and is a factor in casting suspicion.  The narrative goes back and forth between Nick's voice and Amy's diary entries, and while suspenseful,  I felt the pace was off and there was just too much story. Towards the middle of the book I found myself wanting to just skip over the story to the end to find out what happened (I didn't).

And the characters are so unlikeable. And I am someone who likes to read about psychopaths and crazies, so it wasn't that.  I think you have to have some feeling for at least one character in a book, and I had absolutely no feeling for either Nick or Amy or what happened to them. The combination of unbelievable characters and poor writing made this a disappointing read for me.  My book group is discussing this later this month, so it will be interesting to see what they think, because I know some people have liked it a lot.