OK so I was all set to do some real work this morning. I was. Then I saw this in my friend Katherine Stone’s Facebook feed:
Katherine is a remarkable person whose fierce advocacy for women with post partum mood and anxiety disorders is legendary. I listen to her.
The problem is, I really really hate Gone Girl. Really.
First of all I figured out the ending near the beginning. Secondly, the ending was kind of lifted from SPOILER ALERT: Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. Third, I’m betting the movie, soon to be released, is really good, which will just get more people saying nice things about the book. David Fincher. Ben Affleck. Neil Patrick Harris. What could go wrong? I read they changed the ending, too. In principal, that usually bothers me but in this case I’m really curious to see if the change makes the story more palatable.
I am far from the only person with negative feelings toward this novel. The sample in Katherine’s feed includes comments like these:
Rachel Kaffenberger Great writing but the characters just pissed me off. I hated that book. Awful, horrible people are in that book.
Jen Neeld Bradshaw Ha! I read it two weeks ago and I still have some rage.
Asha Dornfest That book freaked me out.
Deb Rox I threw the book. You can guess which scene.
Kit Kelly I hated it.
And my own two personal favorites:
Susan Petcher I feel like “Books that Make You Hate Humanity” needs to be a new FB meme.
Doug French I wanted the last sentence of the book to be, “And then they all piled into a Greyhound Bus and drove into a volcano.”
I’m with Doug. There were also some positive comments but these are the ones I agree with and there are already enough good comments out there in the ether and it’s my blog so….
Even so, it is true that the book evoked a ton of comments and a lot of emotion. I guess there’s some skill required for that to happen but if that’s true, she’s squandered it. Allegedly her other work is better but that’s no excuse – especially for a public which seems to be gaga for this one.
Right now I am reading California, a dystopian, almost too real story of a dark American future. It’s probably only on the radar screen because Stephen Colbert used it as an example of books by young first-time authors who are most hurt by the Amazon-Hachette battle. Since then it too has gotten a lot of attention so one makes me think of the other.
California doesn’t have as many stars on goodreads. For me though, it’s so very much more exciting and provocative. Her characters are more than horrible stereotypes, and it’s Edan Lepucki’s first published novel which is exciting.
This is not a contest between California and Gone Girl or between Stephen Colbert and Ben Affleck. At least not to me. I just didn’t want to be this mean about a book without including one that has my attention, is unpredictable, and includes some decent, interesting people.
Don’t we love that books can get us all riled up like this? Far more fun that terrorists and the NFL!
And for a treat, here’s the Colbert Report after LePucki’s book made the New York Times Best Seller List:
OH and #boycottNFLsponsors.