100 Books That Defined the Decade
For good, for bad, for ugly.
Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (2012)
Cool Girl never gets angry at her man.
*
Essential stats: 432 pages; New York Times hardcover fiction #1 bestseller for 8 weeks; 26 weeks on NPR’s hardcover bestseller list; sold more than two million copies in the first year; adapted into a David Fincher movie with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike; made being a “cool girl” way more frightening than it already was.
What made it a phenomenon? The unconventional plot twist, the unreliable (and very, very, bad) female protagonist, the paranoid portrayal of a marriage gone far far awry.
But is it actually any good? I’d say . . . yes. Despite the fact that my esteem for it began fading as soon as I finished the last page, I enjoyed the hell out of it while it lasted, and it certainly ticks a lot of boxes, including those marked “ingenious” and “scary” and “pretty sexy”. Not bad!
I mean, relatable:
Your girl Gillian on Armchair Expert:
Emily Temple
Emily Temple is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020. You can buy it here.
