I’m featured on Mom’s Butt Is On Fire today! Check it out!
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As promised, my (very amateur) reviews of the past two books I’ve read!
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I write this literally moments after I finished Gone Girl, because I am so furious that I had to get a review out.
The book was both terrible and amazing. I couldn’t put it down, but because I wanted it to be over. Every single new thing that happened drove me more crazy. It’s entirely unbelievable, brilliant, and terrifying all at the same time.
It starts out sort of like a murder mystery. A husband and wife lose their magazine writing jobs in NYC and move to the husband’s small town in Missouri to take care of his dying mother. They start to grow apart, and then the craziness happens. I don’t want to give anything important away, but there are some insane, sociopath, characters and you don’t know who to hate more. One chapter you are siding with one person, the next their enemy. You are confused as to what is going on. What’s real and what’s not. It made it hard to sleep at night.
Do I recommend it? Well, yes. It’s definitely a page turner. It is written from two perspectives – the husband, Nick, and the wife, Amy. It alternates each chapter so you are hearing both sides of the same creepy story. And it kept me interested.
BUT it also made me mad. Especially the ending. Maybe they both got what they deserve.
If nothing else, maybe you’re intrigued enough to check it out and decide on your own. I’ve been fuming about it to my mother (who finished it equally as frustrated) and am curious to see what you think as well!
Wild: From Lost To Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
This one isn’t quite so fresh in my mind, as I finished it about a month ago. It was great, but not as enthralling or exciting as Gone Girl. I didn’t finish it feeling such angst, but that’s probably a good thing!
It’s a true story, which I always like. Cheryl Strayed vividly details her unconventional upbringing, which involved leaving her abusive father, living with almost nothing in rural Minnesota, and turning out to be a brilliant college student. Her relationship with her mother is the most critical, and when her mother dies things start to fall apart. She tries to keep the family together but doesn’t know how. She tries to keep her marriage together, but can’t. She turns to drugs and promiscuity, traveling the country and hanging with shoddy crowds, all while separated from her husband. Of course, this all further complicates her deteriorating life.
After seeing a book on the Pacific Crest Trail in a store, she researches it and decides (naively) that it is exactly what she needs. Time on her own. Hiking this dangerously difficult path from mexico up to canada through California, Washington, and Oregon. But she has no idea what she’s getting herself into.
The book stories her journey. The people she meets. The trials she faces. How she finds herself. But honestly, it wasn’t quite as profound as I had expected. It definitely kept me interested, but I think I was expected something much deeper. Some revelation to occur. This review on the NYTimes is a pretty accurate summary:
“Wild” recounts the months Ms. Strayed spent, during the summer of 1995, when she was 26, hiking alone on thePacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State. There were very frightening moments, but nothing particularly extraordinary happened to her…Yet everything happened. The clarity of Ms. Strayed’s prose, and thus of her person, makes her story, in its quiet way…riveting.”
The book was inspiring. The fact that she could live on so little, when so incompetent in the ways of hiking, and in such deadly conditions. She does things I would never dream of doing, and while her experience is so removed from my life, the lessons she learns are ones we can all relate to.
Do I recommend it? Yes. It’s not going to be as “suck you in and stay up until 4 in the morning finishing” as Gone Girl, but it is a great book and worth reading.
So what to read next!? Any recommendations?
I couldn’t agree more about Gone Girl! I honestly hated the ending. I felt like it just dropped off! It was just such a frustrating book some times! However, I did fly through it as well!
Yes, same I was so mad at the ending of Gone Girl. It made me think..will there be a squeal? But how?
I’m about to read Wild. I think I might be disappointed it isn’t as exciting as gone girl.
I haven’t read either of these but I’ve heard some rave reviews about Gone Girl. I might have to add it to my kindle queue! And congrats on being featured on the webiste. That’s awesome
looooooooooved Gone Girl. until the last page. i was angry for a week.
I felt the same way about “Gone Girl”!!! I was so irritated by the ending. After having troubles sleeping while reading it & highly anticipating the ending I was so disappointed and frustrated by the end. So many people I know & fellow bloggers raved about it so its nice to hear I’m not alone in my opinion
Ahhh I am SUCH a book nerd! I’ve read it all! Let’s see, I’ll try to just name a few with a summary because I could literally go on and on and on for days about books
This Lullaby – Sarah Dessen: It’s a book I never thought I’d like, but ended up loving. I think my highlighter bled dry with all the quotes that I found to relate to me and my life. It’s about a girl who has a tough time believing in love because the relationships surrounding her, well, suck. Then a boy pops in, and he’s completely wrong – but so right for her. It’s a great, but VERY different, love story.
Divergent – Veronica Roth: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I’VE READ IN YEARS! If you read/liked The Hunger Games this book is definitely for you! The best part? There’s a second book that’s just as good as the first. Trust me. Read it.
The Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn: If you like murder mystery type books, this is a great series with each book better than the last!
Enjoyyyyyyyyyyyy
At first I felt very angry about the ending of Gone Girl. but then I realized that any other ending would not have done justice to the true psychosis of both characters. I also appreciated the ending for being as complex as the rest of the book. So many books today are quick reads that don’t make us think quite so much. It was nice to finish a book that left me asking questions not just about creepy characters, but personality disorders and mental health disorders as well.
I can’t wait to read Gone Girl! I bought it to read on vacation in late February, but I’m not sure I can wait that long. Seems every blogger is reviewing as of late and all of my friends are talking about it. I kind of feel like I did when everyone was reading Twilight and I wasn’t…I can’t handle being outta the loop!
I totally agree with your “Strayed” review, I enjoyed it but wasn’t that enthralled. I got “Gone Girl” for Christmas from my mom and am anxious to read it! I’ll let you know what I think of it
I loved Gone Girl, especially because of the two sided narrative. The huge twist in the middle floored me, but in a good way. I know what you mean about wanting it to end…I found myself a little disgruntled with the ending but I still really enjoyed it.
I literally started Gone Girl yesterday and also downloaded Wild. What a coincidence!
Let me know what you think!!
i finished gone girl in 4 days, i couldnt put it down!! and i HATED the ending. apparently psychos just belong together- so weird. and yes i hated everyone at some point. despite all of that i loved it. I’m reading sharp objects now and its not as gripping for me.
yeah I remember starting sharp objects but then putting it away..hmm..
Haha, I LOVED Gone Girl, but I definitely had the same exact reaction as you. Constantly flipping sides, angry at the characters, and pissed about the ending. But I just thought that those all worked together to create this amazing book. Gillian Flynn is an evil genius.
Ok so I avoided this post for a few days while I was finishing up Gone Girl, and I must say I agree with your review. The ending is infuriating, and honestly now that I’ve finished the book, I realize what I thought was the “turning point” was actually just a slow decline to a disappointing ending. But I suppose the anticipation that something else was going to happen kept me reading until the very end, so I didn’t get mad until it was all over. Brilliant, I guess?
Right?!? You don’t know if it is great or Terrible!