Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

The first part of the novel centers on Nick Dunne and his wife Amy's marriage. Its point of view alternates between that of Nick and Amy, whose perspectives on their marriage are very different. For example, Nick describes the couple's relationship in the present day, while Amy's diary entries depict their relationship in the past. Amy's diary portrays Nick as an aggressive, moody, idle, and threatening husband, while Nick describes Amy as someone who is needlessly difficult, anti-social, stubborn, and an irrational perfectionist.

When Nick and Amy both lose their jobs in New York City, they relocate to Nick's hometown in North Carthage, Missouri, to help take care of Nick's sick mother. This causes their marriage to take a turn: Amy loved their life in New York, hates living in the Midwest, and soon begins to resent Nick for making her move to his hometown.

On their wedding anniversary, Amy disappears without a trace, and Nick eventually becomes a suspect in her disappearance. Among other reasons, his lack of emotion about Amy's disappearance and the discovery that Amy was pregnant when she went missing lead both the police and the public to believe that Nick may have murdered his wife.

In the second half of the book, the reader learns that the main characters are unreliable narrators and that the reader is not being given all of the information. Nick is revealed to have been cheating on his wife, and Amy is revealed to be alive and in hiding and trying to frame Nick for her "death" as revenge for his perceived wrongs against her. Her pregnancy and her diary entries are revealed to be fake; Amy fabricated them in order to incriminate Nick further. However, her plan is foiled when she is robbed at the motel she is hiding in. Desperate, she seeks help from her ex-boyfriend Desi Collings, who agrees to hide her in his lake house but soon becomes possessive, causing Amy to feel trapped.

Meanwhile, Nick has discovered that Amy is framing him for her murder by making purchases using credit cards in his name and hiding them in his sister Margo's woodshed, along with her anniversary gift of Punch and Judy puppets, one of which is missing a handle. However, since the clues she left for him on their anniversary treasure hunt are so vague, and based on their inside jokes that no one else would get, he has no way of proving it.

Together, he and his lawyer work to change the public's perception of Nick. He is granted an interview with a popular talk show host, during which Nick pretends to be apologetic for his infidelity and appeals to Amy to come back. It goes well with the public, but unfortunately, the police have discovered in the woodshed boxes of demeaning and violent porn videos, which Nick swears he did not buy, and Amy's diary. A few weeks later, they bring out the missing handle from the Punch and Judy puppets, soaked in Amy's blood, which has been discovered in the river, and arrest Nick.

At Desi's lake house, Amy sees the TV interview and is convinced that Nick really does want her back. She murders Desi after seducing him and returns to her husband, who is out on bond. Upon her return, she fabricates a story that she was kidnapped and imprisoned by Desi. Although Nick knows she is lying, he has no proof and is forced to return to married life with Amy as the media storm dies down.

He soon begins writing a memoir detailing Amy's crimes and deceptions. Aware of Nick's intentions to expose her lies, Amy uses Nick's semen, which they saved at a fertility clinic, to make herself pregnant. She then forces him to delete his book by threatening to keep him from their unborn child. In the end, Nick deletes his memoir and chooses to stay with Amy for his child's sake.