“Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl. Men
actually think this girl exists. They’re not even pretending
to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the
woman a man wants them to be.”

‘Gone Girl’ is my first foray into the works of Gillian Flynn, and in truth, not a choice I would normally make. I read it based on the average review, and well, because so many other people did.  Baa I’m a sheep! But seriously, just like a restaurant, if it’s packed out it must be good right? And you have to move right in there because you want to know what you’re missing.

If you like any of the following subjects you will no doubt love this book.

• Psychology
• Twisted relationships
• Whodunnit stories
• Warped and sadistic humour.

In other words, a story about a totally ‘effed up’ couple from beginning to end.

Amy, a thirty-something, wealthy, city-girl, is emotionally torn by sudden financial meltdown, job loss and debts. The whole spin off has a full impact on not only her self-image and happiness, but on her own perspective of her current life with husband, Nick. When she disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary all fingers point towards him; a self-indulgent, narcissistic man-child.

Written in the first person, via alternate perspectives, the author craftily weaves a blindingly true picture of the couple’s externally admirable (but inwardly twisted) relationship. The dual narrative between them plays out brilliantly, and the author makes you constantly question their real feelings and motives.

We are led through, an at times uncomfortable, but crudely transfixing journey of an ordinary well-to-do couple who are deeply flawed (because everyone is a bit shady,) and their supposedly ideal marriage. One which, for a long time, appears to have been unravelling at the seams. The bittersweet beats of this story are twisted lies, told all too compassionately, and sneaky underhanded tactics doled out with sweet syrupy malice.

Whilst the search is on for Amy, the clever lies pile up like profiteroles stacked on a dangerously rocky base.  At every turn of the page new gut-wrenching surprises are uncovered, and many times I was reminded of De Vito’s classic “War of The Roses.”

I also laughed.

A lot.

The dialogue is punchy, electric. I paused and chortled in parts thinking, ‘God this is one sick couple.’

When you are lost in a the subterfuge of some very convincing  and witty psuedo-psycho babble, you find yourself rooting for one of the characters, then in the next scene your allegiance shifts straight to the other. I could identify with both, as neither seem to be telling the ‘whole’ truth, and it highlights how years of pain, hurt and lies buried under a stoic facade can lead people to do utterly crazy things.

Amy and Nick’s constantly shifting motivations head towards a slow-boiling climax, and it is ultimately heartbreaking as much as it is entertaining.

This book may not be for everybody, but I found it gritty, incisive, and it definitely appealed to my liking of sardonic and dark-edged wit.  Needless to say, I continued to absorb it long after I put down.

There is no question of King being an extremely imaginative writer. He is also prolific in churning out pages and pages of narrative where you might assume very little has actually happened, but yet, flick back, and you will see 300 pages have been read. This is the author’s deliberate slow-churning build up of tension, a careful lego construction of atmosphere and characterisation which most of his stories tend to follow. King will not cut corners or deliver results quickly. Pruning his manuscript is not one of his ‘to-do’ tasks.

Some fans will patiently relish the crawling anticipation of King’s ultimate climax, but unfortunately for some readers, a dreadfully slow-moving  pace can be more of a nightmare than the story’s proposed intention. If the story happens to take off – great – but if it doesn’t – the book will be nothing more than a hard graft to complete, and possibly even given up to abandonment.

In this case, I found the latter scenario more applicable. Let me tell you, I had high hopes with Insomnia. I picked it up and marvelled at the size of it. I felt daunted and yet inspired (as I always do with his books) by the fact somewhere within those 900 pages of text I couldn’t fail to absorb some of those great ‘King’ moments. Well, I did get those moments, but with Insomnia, they were so few and far between.

The story itself is centered around a small community suburb , with the main character Ralph (an elderly man) experiencing a few oddities arising after the death of his wife. He can no longer sleep more than four hours a night and people he has known half his lifetime are acting a little strange. As time goes on Ralph starts to visualise people’s auras, balloon strings wavering above their heads, and other weird unearthly things.

He also see’s three hobbit-sized people in white coats which he calls (the bald docs.) Following a few sketchy deaths in the presence of these bald docs, and some citizens acting strangely out of character, Ralph becomes less doubtful of his own insanity. He realises something supernatural and purposeful is happening in his town, especially when he is finally confronted with the docs. There is a purpose Ralph must fulfill and as the story gradually titters along, Ralph not only finds new love, but also, his connection to all these strange occurrences.

As with all of King’s books, a detour in development is hardly surprising. You think the story is heading one way and then veers off into another direction completely. It had practically nothing to do with insomnia per se, other than the fact that some freakish other-worldly creatures were causing Ralph to experience his insomnia and visions. To be honest at many points in the book I didn’t have a clue what was really going on at all, and I still don’t, but whilst I was being shunted up and down on the sledge of King’s weird imagination – and boy is it weird – not every detail was fully grasped but I did however suck up some of those great lines which only he can deliver. Despite slugging it through the last half of the book I actually enjoyed the poignantly sad trade-off ending. Therefore….

Am I glad I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. But like most of King’s books and whether you like them or not, some part of them is almost always unforgettable.

So to sum this book up in one sentence. A very long-winded, yet amazingly imaginative story of an ordinary pensioner brushing shoulders with visiting 20th century type hobbits, in a quest to battle against an alien force of good versus evil.