Off-Season Survival Plan - Read More Books, Part One

Winter has been slow to come to Southwest Montana and right now it feels like we're entering the sixth week of November. Ugh! Mike and have gotten  to do some backcountry skiing over the past two weekends but it is just a survival tactic at this point. Really more tootling than actual worthwhile ski touring but much better that walking up The M in mud and ice.

I am thankful for the extra time to take care of some neglected home projects and catch up on reading.  Below is the first of what I hope will be a series of book reviews.

Gone Girl, a novel by Gillian Flynn. Now a major motion picture.

The A-List gives Gone Girl 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I saw the movie first as one of my early November survival tactic. Despite clocking in at a lengthy 149 minutes, l still left the theatre thinking that the book [500+ pages] would be better. Both were great but my instinct about the book was right. The psychological nature of the story lent itself nicely to the book, where the author could get into more detail about the characters, their backgrounds and a myriad of other details difficult to capture in movie, even one as long as Gone Girl.

My only complaint was that at times I found the story to be was a bit far fetched.  (More so in the book than in the movie)  The lead female character Amy (Played by Rosamund Pike) hatched such an elaborate plan to deceive. To me it seemed unlikely it would go as smoothly as it did for as long as it did. However, the story was strong enough so I was able to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good tale.

Gone Girl, both book and movie, didn't easily leave my mind. Themes surrounding relationships, honesty, trust, deception, and privilege were central to the plot, and I always enjoy those sorts of stories. Add in the troubling, creepy and somewhat far-fetched elements and it had me captured.

Gone Girl is a gripping thriller that is easy to get wrapped up in.  I would recommend both the book and the movie. The storyline has some differences from book to movie but both are basically the same. The A-List gives it 4.5 out of 5 stars.