Gone girl by Gillian Flynn***

Reading dates: 7 – 27 December 2014

I saw David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gone Girl in Boston earlier this year and despite my admiration for his earlier films, I really hated it. A lovely idea gone wrong, a broken promise, a lost hour, made worse by the fact that the hopes and expectations were so high. So, as you do in these situations, I read the book of a film I did not like, and it made me appreciate it more.

The problem is in the book, in the story. A wonderful beginning, a great premise, becomes an ordinary story, the same story told all over again without taking advantage of the form, of what words and scenes can do. Superb beginning but mediocre in execution; too middlebrow, my most despised kind of book. The only thing I ask of my reading, as with most things in life, is that it delivers on its promises. Gone girl does not, and for those of you falling out of love with Murakami, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The book has left me in a funny position about what to chose next. I long for Madame Bovary but I am not sure I can bear the hard work. I also want to read more Denise Mina but want to be really enthralled. Any ideas? Can you give me a reading list for 2015?