Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I was lucky enough to get an ARC (advanced readers copy) of Gone Girl back in 2012, I felt it was time to revisit it and I found that I enjoyed it now just as much as I did then! You can read my review from 2012 by clicking HERE.


‘You two are the most fucked-up people I have ever met, and I specialize in fucked-up people.”
― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl    

Gone Girl is a fast paced, exciting read! It's about a young married couple named Nick and Amy who are down on their luck and move away from Amy's beloved New York to a Nick's small hometown in Missouri to care for his ailing mother and open up a bar on what is left of Amy's trust fund monies.

The bar allows for the Dunne's to leave a comfortable life but Amy is terribly unhappy, hates the home they are living in and their once romantic, loving marriage had turned. On the day of their wedding anniversary, Amy disappears. The crime scene appears staged and Nick is the number one suspect.

Nick pleads his innocence and go on the annual anniversary scavenge hunt that Amy has set up. The hunt and solving the too easy clues puts Nick in situations that make him more suspect to investigators. Amy is quite clever and is setting, Nick up to take the fall.

Amy is a sociopath, plain and simple. She is on crazy b***h but Nick, has weaved his own tight web of misdeeds. It's difficult to talk about the plot without revealing it but it is dark, twisted and ugly.


This is by far my favorite book by Flynn.

The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

I didn't read the synopsis of, "The Year We Turned Forty" and it ended up being completely different than I anticipated and as a result of this, I was loss for a bit until I figured out what was going on!

The book starts off with our main characters about to turn 50 (see why I was lost?!?) 
Jessie, Gabriela, and Claire are best friends and have made it a tradition to celebrate their birthday's that are close in date to one another.  For their 50th birthday they have chosen Vegas as their party destination. 

A drift and secrets between the friends have changed the dynamics of their friendship in the past 10 years and they are all distinctly aware of this. The past ten years have been met with many ups and downs and some life altering experiences. There has been death, divorce, birth and career highs but when they are given the opportunity by a magician to travel back to the year their turned 40 they take it.

They are given exactly one year to relive their 40th year before deciding if the want to stay on that timeline continuum or return to their 50s. The journey they embark gives them an opportunity to fix past mistakes but new unexpected problems arise making their choice to stay or leave more difficult than the ever though possible.

This book is filled with great characters and the multiple timelines are easily identifiable. This is a perfect beach read and leaves you wondering if you'd ever redo a time period of your life. I wouldn't, would you?

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

" I miss myself." 

"I miss you, too, Ali, so much."

" I never planned to get like this."

"I know." 

-Still Alice by Lisa  Genova

 

I read, Still Alice in March of 2009 and decided it was time to revisit this story. I remain moved and heartbroken. Alice has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease and this is her story. It is unique in that the story is told from Alice's perspective. We usually read/hear about how, Alzheimer impacts the family and not the individual.

Genova has written Alice's story so that you live if with her, through her mind. You feel her anguish, frustrations, fear and doubts. As a reader you lose your "mind" right along with, Alice. You experience the horror of watching yourself forget who you are and who those around you are. Simple, tasks that we take for granted become nearly impossible feats. 

Alice is resilient, high intelligent, fiercely educated and independent but Alzheimer's slowly eats away at those traits, turning her into a former version of herself. Imagine for a moment that you can no longer participate in your favorite activity, for example: You can no longer read a novel because you can't recall what happened 5 pages ago or you reread the same passage over and over and can't keep it in your memory. That is life with Alzheimer's in every capacity.

It is a disease with no cure. I imagine it to be a cruel disease that leave you in a perpetual state of confusion and fear. I have witnessed it. My great-grandmother was diagnosed and the last few years of her life were brutal. She couldn't remember eating, moments after you took away her plate. She couldn't remember that a glass/cup could be placed on a table, so she threw it wherever it would land instead (sometimes aiming at you).

Be prepared to self-analyze yourself while reading this. I know I did!