I wanna go home and READ!!!

It feels like it’s been forever, but I’ve finally been sucked in by a book. And the book that has sucked me in – has me wishing I could call in sick just to stay home and read – is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

I’ve been hearing about Gone Girl for quite a while now. I’ve read reviews on it on a million different blogs in the past year or so, and most of the time, the reviews were very favourable. So favourable, in fact, that I purchased it last fall and it’s been sitting on my book shelf ever since, waiting for the right time.

My problem lately has been that I read the selections we have for book club, and not much else. And while I’ve enjoyed some of the book club books, others have gravely disappointed me. When I’m not rapt by a book, it takes me a long time to plod through it. For instance, our most recent selection: The Naughty Girls Book Club by Sophie Hart. I had high hopes for this book. I was expecting a fun and sexy romp that I’d get all wrapped in, a la Fifty Shades or Bared To You. But this one just didn’t do it for me like those books did. It was a book filled with characters that I just felt meh about and their stories never really captured me. And it wasn’t as…erm… thrilling, if you know what I mean.

But I got it done in the nick of time (actually, even more so since book club was postponed one week), and then I had to decide what to do. I have a good many books on my shelf that I’m anxious to read, but I keep putting them off because if I don’t move on to the next book club selection, I might not get it done in time.

This time, however, I had a feeling I’d be able to squeeze in another read before the next one, because I’m already pretty certain our next book – Orange is the New Black, which we’ll meet over in August – is going to be up my alley. I was pretty sure I had time to try Gone Girl before starting it.

So why Gone Girl right now? Mainly because my sister’s mother-in-law and I have discovered we both are in the same boat: we both love going to the movies, and often can’t find anyone to go with us. So we’ve decided we should go together!! We saw The Butler last fall, and Noah this spring, and she informed me recently that Gone Girl is being made into a movie and she wants to see it. She read the book awhile back, and when I told her it was just sitting on a shelf waiting on me, she said, “Oh, Jill. You have to read it!!!”

PS – the movie stars Ben Affleck.  I’m IN!!!!

Annnddd…..Badda boom, badda bing. Four days after starting it, I’m already over half-way through.

And over half-way through, I can honestly say I don’t know what to think about this book. All I know is that I just want to keep reading.

It is told from two different perspectives – the chapters alternate between present-day husband Nick, who’s wife has gone missing and he’s in the midst of the police investigation, looking more and more like the culprit with each passing day; and past diary entries from his missing wife, Amy, detailing different stages of their relationship and how she feels about him, from when she first meets to him, to dating him, to different stages of their five years of marriage.

I really can’t say how I feel about either of the main characters. I don’t relate all that much to Amy, and while Nick originally seemed like the kinda guy Jill falls for, the more and more he talks, the less wonderful he seems. Normally, I need to connect with a character – relate to the girl, or fall in love with the boy – to be this captivated.

On top of it all, the story is kind of creepy. Not scary like a horror story or some murder mysteries can be. Just… eerie.

Yet, it’s all told in this first-person-way that is so totally captivating. I mean, it’s the kind of writing style that I wish I’d been born with. It just flows, and yet it’s so witty and smart. And almost every chapter ends in a way that has me totally intrigued, dying to find out what happens next.

Last night, I just finished Part One and moved into Part Two, which reveals this whole big twist that makes me even MORE anxious to get home and get reading!

I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m fascinated. I’m even forgoing valuable evening TV time to read.

And that, for me, is a sure sign that I’ve hit the literary jackpot.

Finally.