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Description edit
'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
When a woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage. Meanwhile her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred.
Characters edit
- Amy Elliott Dunne: Former personality quiz writer, married to Nick Dunne.
- Lance Nicholas (Nick) Dunne: Writer, married to Amy, who returns home to Missouri to help care for his ailing mother after losing his job in New York.
- Carmen: Amy's friend
- Noelle Hawthorne: Neighbor of the Dunnes and mother of triplets.
- Marybeth Elliott: Amy's mother, a writer who created a character named Amy and co-wrote a book series with husband Rand.
- Rand Elliott: Amy's father, co-writer with wife, Marybeth, of a book series with the main character named after Amy.
- Carl Pelley: Neighbor of the Dunnes and frequent customer of The Bar.
- Rhonda Boney: Detective investigating Amy's disappearance
- Jim Gilpin: Detective investigating Amy's disappearance
- Desi Collings: Amy's obsessive ex-boyfriend from high school
- Shawna Kelly: Volunteer in the search for Amy.
- Hilary Handy: Amy's former high school classmate.
- Andie Hardy: Journalism student of Nick's.
- Maureen Dunne: Nick's mother (Mama Mo) who dies of cancer the year before Amy goes missing.
- Bill Dunne: Nick's father. Suffers from Alzheimers.
- Jacqueline Collings: Desi's mother.
- Ellen Abbott: Host of a cable show specializing in missing, murdered women.
- Tanner Bolt: Lawyer specializing in high-profile murder cases.
- Jeff: Fisherman living in a cabin in the Ozarks.
- Greta: Woman running away from her past.
- Steven (Stucks) Buckley: Old friend of Nick's who helps to look for Amy
- Sharon Schieber: Journalist who hosts her own show.
- Betsy Bolt: Tanner's wife, also a lawyer.
- Tommy O'Hara: Former boyfriend of Amy's.
- Margo Dunne: Nick's twin sister, known as Go
- Officer Riordan: First of the two police officers responding to Amy's disappearance
- Dorothy: Owner/Manager of a tourist cabin court in the Ozarks.
- Mike Hawthorne: Noelle's husband
- Jan Teverer: Neighbor of Amy and Nick
- Rebecca: Reporter who meets Nick in a bar.
- Officer Velásquez: First of the two police officers responding to Amy's disappearance
- Insley: A friend of Amy's in New York.
- Lonnie: Mall squatter
- Bleeker: Nick & Amy Dunne's cat.
- Campbell MacIntosh: One of Amy's friends.
Quotes edit
-
“'The only thing that makes you look bad is you holding out on us."”
Officer Rhonda Boney -
“People say children from broken homes have it hard, but the children of charmed marriages have their own particular challenges.”
Amy Dunne -
“"Love make you want to be a better man – right, right. But maybe love, real of, also give you permission to just be the man you are."”
Nick Dunne -
“I worry for a second that she wants to set us up: I am not interested in being set up. I need to be ambushed, caught unawares, like some sort of feral love-jackal. I’m too self-conscious otherwise. I feel myself trying to be charming, and then I realize I’m obviously trying to be charming, and then I try to be even more charming to make up for the fake charm, and then I’ve basically turned into Liza Minnelli: I’m dancing in tights and sequins, begging you to love me. There’s a bowler and jazz hands and lots of teeth.”
Amy -
“There’s a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.”
Margo -
“Because isn’t that the point of every relationship: to be known by someone else, to be understood? He gets me. She gets me. Isn’t that the simple magic phrase?”
Amy -
“the stutter of jokes misunderstood, the witty remarks lobbed and missed. Or maybe he understands that you’ve made a witty remark but, unsure of what to do with it, he holds it in his hand like some bit of conversational phlegm he will wipe away later.”
Amy -
“And you go home to a cold bed and think, That was fine. And your life is a long line of fine.”
Amy -
“I often don’t say things out loud, even when I should. I contain and I compartmentalize to a disturbing degree: In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you’d never guess from looking at me. (37)”
Nick -
“My mom, one of the first things she ever told me, going to school the first day: "Stay away from boys. They'll either throw rocks or look up your skirt."”
Greta -
“"We pretend to be in love, and we do the things we like to do when we're in love, and it feel almost like love sometimes, because we are so perfectly putting ourselves through the paces. Reviving the muscle memory of early romance." (404)”
-
“"There's something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold." (7)”
Nick -
“"6-0-0. It felt different. I rarely woke at such a rounded time. I was a man of jagged rising: 8:43, 11:51, 9:26. My life was alarmless." (3)”
Nick -
“I coughed out a laugh, "Do you think Judith Viorst kidnapped Amy for Alexander so he wouldn't have any more Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days?" (78)”
Nick -
“"I will make a study of her: She is who I can be for a bit - the abused tough girl hiding out until the storm passes over." (261)”
-
“There's something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.”
Nick -
“It is dangerous to laugh at your spouse. (21)”
Nick -
“-my brain had been burping up such inappropriate thoughts at inopportune moments. Mental gas I couldn't control. (78)”
Nick -
“I'm a big fan of the lie of omission.”
Nick
Setting & Locations edit
North Carthage, Missouri
- North Carthage, Missouri: Nick Dunne's hometown and where he returns to when his parents become sick.
- Brooklyn: Where Nick and Amy were living when they were first married
- Tom Sawyer Park: Where a candlelight vigil is held for Amy
- Days Inn: Where Amy's parents set up a Volunteer Center.
- St. Louis: Where Desi lives.
- Comfort Hill: Where Nick's father is a patient
- New York: Where Amy and Nick first met and where they lived in the first years of their marriage.
- Mississippi River: Flows through Nick's hometown of Hannibal. It's visible from Nick and Amy's back porch.
- Hannibal, Missouri: Nick's hometown. Where he and Amy moved after they both lost their jobs in New York.
- The Bar: Nick's business when he moved back to take care of his parents.
First Sentence edit
When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.
Table of Contents edit
Part One: Boy Loses Girl
Nick Dunne: The Day of
Amy Elliott: January 8, 2005
Nick Dunne: The Day of
Amy Elliott: September 18, 2005
Nick Dunne: The Day of
Amy Elliott Dunne: July 5, 2008
Nick Dune: The Night of
Amy Elliott Dunne: April 21, 2009
Nick Dunne: One Day Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: July 5, 2010
Nick Dunne: One Day Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: August 23, 2010
Nick Dunne: Two Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: September 15, 2010
Nick Dunne: Three Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: October 16, 2010
Nick Dunne: Four Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: April 28, 2011
Nick Dunne: Four Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: July 21, 2011
Nick Dunne: Five Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: August 17, 2011
Nick Dunne: Five Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: October 21, 2011
Nick Dunne: Six Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: February 15, 2012
Nick Dunne: Six Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: June 26, 2012
Nick Dunne: Seven Days Gone
Part Two: Boy Meets Girl
Amy Elliott Dunne: The Day Of (1)
Nick Dunne: Seven Days Gone (1)
Amy Elliott Dune: The Day Of (2)
Nick Dunne: Seven Days Gone (2)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Five Days Gone
Nick Dunne: Eight Days Gone (1)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Seven Days Gone
Nick Dunne: Eight Days Gone (2)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Eight Days Gone
Nick Dunne: Eight Days Gone (3)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Nine Days Gone (1)
Nick Dunne: Nine Days Gone
Amy Elliot Dunne: Nine Days Gone (2)
Nick Dunne: Ten Days Gone (1)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Ten Days Gone (1)
Nick Dunne: Ten Days Gone (2)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Ten Days Gone (2)
Nick Dunne: Ten Days Gone (3)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Eleven Days Gone
Nick Dunne: Fourteen Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: Twenty-Six Days Gone
Nick Dunne: Thirty-Three Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: Forty Days Gone
Part Three: Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa)
Nick Dunne: Forty Days Gone
Amy Elliott Dunne: The Night or the Return (1)
Nick Dunne: The Night of the Return (1)
Amy Elliott Dunne: The Night or the Return (2)
Nick Dunne: The Night of the Return (2)
Amy Elliott Dunne: Five Days after the Return
Nick Dunne: Thirty Days after the Return
Amy Elliott Dunne: Eight Weeks after the Return
Nick Dunne: Nine Weeks after the Return
Amy Elliott Dunne: Ten Weeks after the Return
Nick Dunne: Twenty Weeks after the Return
Amy Elliott Dunne: Ten Months, Two Weeks, Six Days after the Return
Glossary edit
- Hifalutin: Or Highfalutin. adj. pompous or pretentious.
- Bumpkin: n. an unsophisticated person. Not very intellegent or interested in culture. Generally refers to someone living in a rural area.
- Asinine: adj. extremely stupid or foolish.
- Lackadaisical: adj. lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy.
- Bespoke: British (of goods, especially clothing). adj. made to order.
- Wastrel: n. an utter waste of a person and a mind.
- Dervish: n. a Muslim (specifically Sufi) religious man or woman who has taken vows of poverty and austerity.
- Saunter: v. walk in a slow, relaxed manner.
- Oubliette: n. a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling.
- Kowtow: v. act in an excessively subservient manner.
- Cloy: v. <with obj.> (usually as adj. cloying) disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment.
- Twerp: n. INFORMAL a silly or annoying person.
- Hoary: Having gray or white hair
- Propitious: Indicating or having a good chance of success
- Misogynist: Man who hates women
- Hijinks or hi-jinks: Boisterous fun.
- Vexillology: The study of flags.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Love and Marriage: Revenge
Series & Lists edit
This is book 3 of 15 in New York Times Bestsellers - Fiction (Current). (authoritative list)
This is book 10 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 2012. (authoritative list)
This book is in 2012 Published Books. (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Gillian Flynn (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition
Country: US
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 9780297859383
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition
Country: US
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 9780297859383
Page Count: 432
Awards edit
- Edgar Award (Finalist, 2013: Best Novel)
- Women's Prize for Fiction (Finalist, 2013, Longlist)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3606.L935 G66 2012
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Gillian Flynn: Author's website
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