Directed by David Fincher, with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in lead roles, the film achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim.
In Nick's narrative, he views Amy as a needlessly difficult, antisocial, controlling perfectionist, and an unwelcome obligation, but he is concerned about her disappearance.
During the investigation, Nick faces intense media scrutiny, exacerbated by his lack of obvious emotion and apparent flippant attitude.
Nick has admitted that he is cheating on his wife with Andie, his former college student, and intended to divorce Amy; he hid this from investigators to avoid suspicion.
Nick becomes aware of Amy's plan based on vague clues that she has left under the guise of their traditional anniversary treasure hunt.
The shed also contains Amy's anniversary gift of Punch and Judy puppets (one missing a handle), indicating that she expects Nick to receive the death penalty for her murder.
At Desi's house, Amy sees the TV interview and is impressed by Nick's performance of a perfect husband, and is convinced that the two of them uniquely understand and are matched to each other.
She fabricates a story for investigators that she was kidnapped from home and imprisoned by Desi before killing him to escape; her diary entries were melodramatic and she is glad to be back with Nick.
Amy uses Nick's semen, which they had saved at a fertility clinic, to inseminate herself, and forces him to delete his book by threatening to keep him from their unborn child.
Salon.com notes that "Flynn, a former staff writer for Entertainment Weekly, is especially good on the infiltration of the media into every aspect of the missing-person investigation, from Nick's cop-show-based awareness that the husband is always the primary suspect to a raving tabloid-TV Fury, who is out to avenge all wronged women and obviously patterned on Nancy Grace.
"[8] Amy's "Cool Girl" speech, and Nick's performing for his media spectators, highlight the importance of establishing and maintaining public appearances, however false.
[10] A Chicago Tribune review notes that Gone Girl uses many of the devices common to thrillers—a cast of viable suspects, unfolding secrets, and red herrings.
However, the novel does more with these devices than the thriller genre requires: "While serving their usual functions, they also do much more, launching us into an unnerving dissection of the fallout of failed dreams.
[13] Gillian Flynn is a former writer for Entertainment Weekly who wrote two popular novels prior to Gone Girl — Sharp Objects, and Dark Places.
"[15] Ty Burr, a former coworker at Entertainment Weekly, asserts that Flynn "was really hung up on" the film, Leave Her to Heaven (1945), and it was a direct inspiration for the story.
[13] Flynn's autobiographical essay "I Was Not a Nice Little Girl..." invites readers to believe she took inspiration for Amy Dunne from her own interior monologue.
A favorite indoor game called "Mean Aunt Rosie" allowed Flynn to cast herself as a "witchy caregiver" who exercised malevolent influence over her cousins.
The same essay argues that women fail to acknowledge their own violent impulses and incorporate them into their personal narratives, though men tend to cherish stories of their childhood meanness.
[19] Flynn said that she was influenced by mystery writers Laura Lippman, Karin Slaughter, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, and Harlan Coben.
However, she tries not to read any one genre exclusively, and she also admires Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, T. C. Boyle, and Arthur Phillips, who are better known as realistic contemporary writers.
Reviewers express admiration for the book's suspense, a plot twist involving an unreliable narrator, its psychological dimension, and its examination of a marriage that has become corrosive.
[3] The New Yorker describes it as a "mostly well-crafted novel," praising its depiction of an "unraveling" marriage and a "recession-hit Midwest," while finding its conclusion somewhat "outlandish".
"[12] A USA Today review focuses on bookseller enthusiasm for the book, quoting a Jackson, Mississippi store manager saying, "It will make your head spin off.
"[32] People Magazine's review found the novel "a delectable summer read" that burrows "deep into the murkiest corners of the human psyche.
"[33] A Chatelaine review commends the novel's suspense, its intricately detailed plot and the way it keeps the reader "unnervingly off balance".
He said, "its content may be postmodern, but it takes the form of a thoroughbred thriller about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships.
[40] Culture writer Dave Itzkoff wrote that the novel was, excepting books in the Fifty Shades trilogy, the biggest literary phenomenon of 2012.
By the end of its first year in publication, Gone Girl had sold over two million copies in print and digital editions, according to the book's publisher.
[43] American actress Reese Witherspoon's film production company and 20th Century Fox bought the screen rights to Gone Girl, for which they paid US$ 1.5 million.
[44] In May 2013, it was announced that David Fincher was brought on as director,[45] with Ben Affleck cast as Nick and Rosamund Pike in the role of Amy.