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Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

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Where She Went by Gayle Form8492825an
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Published by: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Series: If I Stay (#1)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Where She Went by Gayle Forman, is the sequel to If I Stay – a book I really enjoyed. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Where She Went, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of Adam in the first book so to have a book from his perspective didn’t improve my rating. Originally I hadn’t planned on reading the sequel, because I enjoyed the ambiguities of If I Stay’s ending. Now, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the ending, but I didn’t think I needed a sequel to come to the same conclusions that I’d already…concluded.

Adam spends the majority of the book moaning about how much Mia hurt him – this book takes place about three years after the ending of the first book – by going to Julliard and living her dream. I was absolutely appalled by the time it took for Adam to recognize that he had told her he would let her go if she stayed. Because Adam was in an unhappy place in his life it didn’t make for very fun reading. The novel definitely picked up with the introduction of Mia, but even then it wasn’t until the very end that I felt what I’d read actually meant something to the characters.

Forman still effortlessly went back and forth in the timeline, and I enjoy how easy her writing is to read. There wasn’t as much music in Where She Went, but I didn’t feel like this made it any less identifiable as Adam and Mia’s story. In fact the lack of music references just showed how much these characters changed. One thing that I felt was lacking was a resolute message that change can sometimes be good. Also, I wasn’t particularly fond of how attached Adam was to Mia – a good relationship should be supportive, but not dependent, which is what Adam was.

I think regret is a strong word to describe how I feel about reading this book, because I don’t think it necessarily added or subtracted from how much I liked If I Stay. I will say that if you’re undecided on whether or not to pick up Where She Went, just think about where you would like Mia and Adam’s relationship progresses and assume you are correct. Overall, I gave Where She Went two stars, because I couldn’t connect with Adam’s PoV as much as I did Mia’s and it would be unfair to rate it the same as If I Stay.

Review: Are We There Yet? by David Levithan

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18343374Are We There Yet? by David Levithan
Genre: Contemporary, Family
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 215
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I picked this book up because I have been thoroughly enjoying David Levithan’s co-written works with Rachel Cohn, and I decided that in 2015 I wanted to read more of his novels. When I saw a wild David Levithan book appear in the library, one that I hadn’t heard of no less, I jumped on the chance to read it.

Are We There Yet? by David Levithan is the story of two brothers who really misunderstand one another. They’ve grown apart as they’ve gotten older, and when their parents send them on a holiday to Italy they don’t know how they’re going to cope.

The character development was progressively good. I didn’t like where the brothers started but I really liked how their relationship changed and evolved into something new. There was a lot of miscommunication between the brothers, and the age gap didn’t help matters, so it really made me thankful that I’ve grown up with a sister who’s the same age (high five, Maddie!) I don’t think I’ve read much about brothers before, there always seems to be sister relationships in novels, but you don’t often hear of two brothers – if you do please recommend the good ones! – and Levithan analyzed the differences between the different sibling relationships and it was really eye opening. I’d say that because of Maddie I don’t really know much about different gender sibling relationships. People always ask Maddie and I ‘what’s it like to be twin’ and we can only ever respond with ‘we don’t know any different!’ But those same people would then proceed to look at us strangely if we asked them ‘what’s it like to have a younger brother?’ or something along those lines.

I can’t say that I preferred one brother to the other, because it really depended on what either David or Elijah were doing. I wouldn’t say I connected with either of their personalities, but the relationship they shared was what made me keep reading! They were in Italy – Venice, Florence, Rome – and I really liked hearing about all the different landmarks. I was particularly interested in Florence as that is the focus of my History coursework that I start in January.

Apart from visiting a few landmarks, and getting their hearts broken there wasn’t too much plot. It probably isn’t the book for you if you like a fast paced adventure read, but if you like the family-centric novels then pick this one up straight away! It’s a great ‘brothers version’ of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Are We There Yet? has not put me of Levithan’s writing at all, in fact I can’t wait to get my hands on more! However, I’m only going to give this book two stars comparatively to his other works.

Apart from visiting a few landmarks, and getting their hearts broken there wasn’t too much plot. It probably isn’t the book for you if you like a fast paced adventure read, but if you like the family-centric novels then pick this one up straight away! It’s a great ‘brothers version’ of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Are We There Yet? has not put me of Levithan’s writing at all, in fact I can’t wait to get my hands on more! However, I’m only going to give this book two stars comparatively to his other works.

Review: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

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Dash and Lily’s B10264464ook of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Published by: Knopf Books
Pages: 260
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

David Levithan and Rachel Cohn are quickly becoming some of my favourite authors. I read Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist relatively recently and really enjoyed it, and picked up Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares for the Christmas Booktubeathon (a book with red and green on the cover) and boy, am I glad I did!

There’s something about the way that Levithan and Cohn construct their characters relationships, so that the book is equally just about Lily, just about Dash, and just about the two as an entity. There wasn’t a perspective that I liked more than the other, because both sides were engaging and heartwarming to the point of making me a giggling mess. I was so surprised to read that the authors didn’t plan out every single detail and circumstance. They literally just passed chapters back and forth as if they were Dash and Lily themselves. I admire that style of writing, no plan. Simply go.

I loved how there were certain things that linked Dash and Lily together, one of them would mention something they did, and then it would pop up in the next character’s chapter. A little bit of dramatic irony never hurt any one! What I also loved was that the family and friends of Dash and Lily aren’t explained fully – yeah, their backstories crop up, but we’re quite a way into the story and Boomer shows up and he’s a main character! It makes it seem as if you’re really looking into someone’s life.

Dash and Lily’s story got progressively less about the book and more about the people. There was some amazing character development in this book…perhaps not development in Dash’s case, but they both ‘found’ themselves. You could see that they were both concerned with the way they were presented on paper versus ‘real life’, which added an interesting dynamic of self-discovery that you don’t often see talked about in YA. The book was more than just two kids finding romance, it was more about them realizing that they were unique and that was okay. I really appreciated the profound way they talked about ‘the girl/boy in your head’, it was an interesting concept that got me thinking.

Dash’s wordiness, and Lily’s endless family connections, how every secondary character had a purpose, and the unique settings around New York really made me fall in love with this book. There was also a little cameo reference to Nick and Norah, and you know I love a good cameo!

Overall, I would give Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares four stars, because I really did enjoy the story, but I was disappointed with the ending. The build up was good, but then it cut out about two chapters before I wanted it to! I will definitely be picking up Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List, and any subsequent co-written works!

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

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Matched

Matched by Ally Condie
Genre: Dystopian, Romance
Published by: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 369
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: Crossed (#2) | Reached (#3)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I’ve had this book on my Kindle since I first got it a year ago. That means it’s been sitting on my Kindle shelf for a year, neglected and gathering pixelated dust. After I found out my school library has the rest of the series, I thought it was time to read ‘Matched’. I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about this series. A lot of people say that it goes downhill as the series progresses, but I think that’s common in any trilogy. I tried to keep an open mind.

OK, first, I did like the world. It was explained in the smoothest way possible, and there were a lot of different things going on that didn’t really seem connected. Why euthanise the elderly? What is the purpose of the coloured pills and do they have any long-term effects? What’s the use of ‘sorting’ jobs? I hope that some of these questions are answered as the series progresses, as there were a few holes I felt needed to be filled.

The romance, and yes it was a love triangle, was not annoying. Although there were two guys, Xander, who Cassia was matched with and Ky, who she actually fell in love with, there wasn’t much competition between the two. Xander seemed to respect that even though Cassia was meant to marry him someday, with him was not where her heart belonged. I think as soon as two boys are introduced, people assume the love triangle will be drawn out and repetitive. I was surprised this was not the case. (Of course, we’ve still got another two book in the series, so Xander could change his mind…)

All parts of culture are limited in this Society. There are only one hundred songs, paintings, poems. Although a motivating quote from a poem ‘Go not gently’ spurred on Cassia to choice her own path in life, I thought the book itself did the exact opposite. The plot progression was kind of underwhelming, with a slow pace and no clear direction until there was mention of a rebellion in the Outer Provinces. (Just another cliched storyline: ‘What’s beyond the wall?’)

Overall, ‘Matched’ was reminiscent of ‘Delirium’ and ‘Divergent’, with the Society controlling the lives of their citizens, even their love lives, with the spark of rebellion at the end. In fact, it reminded me of every other dystopian on the Young Adult shelves. However, there was something about this book’s gentleness and subtlety that made me want to pick up the next in the series, ‘Crossed’. I hope that the next books in the series do well to advance the plot of ‘Matched’ and develop the world. I would, therefore, give this book 3 stars, as there is lots of room for improvement, but still lots of elements that I enjoyed. Yay!

Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger

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The DuffThe Duff  by Kody Keplinger
Genre: Contemporary
Published by: Little Brown
Pages: 280
Format: E-book
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

After seeing that this book was going to become a movie (and that it was only 99p on Kindle) I was super intrigued to see what ‘The Duff’ was about…and what the word even meant.

So, DUFF stands for designated, ugly, fat friend. Even though the main character, Bianca, is none of these things, its a label used to separate her from her friends, who are seen as prettier because they have bigger chests and longer legs. (This book is certainly filled with a lot of stereotypes of what’s beautiful.)

Bianca tries to defy this label and she does this with the help of womaniser Wesley Rush. Urgh. Even the name makes you want to roll your eyes. The basis of their relationship revolves around having sex to distract them from their family problems. (Bianca’s parents are getting a divorce and her dad’s an alcoholic.) Not the kind of relationship to promote. However, it seems they were operating under the rule ‘sex first, love later’, which is what ends up happening.

The relationship dynamic between the couple made me feel uncomfortable. Of course, it’s probably realistic, as ‘romance’ becomes more of something we put in inverted commas rather than a reality. I was able to understand the relationship, but not connect with Bianca because of it. I preferred the romance she shared with Toby Tucker. His name instantly tells you he’s someone that would ask if he could kiss you, and would walk you to your door at the end of a date. Cute.

What I really loved about this book, though, was the way the label ‘Duff’ affected Bianca. I think it really demonstrated how much a word like ‘ugly’ can affect a girl, especially when it comes from someone of the opposite sex. I hate the fact that self-esteem is built or broken because of the opinions of others, but its the truth. Bianca coped with the insult but it truly affected her. What’s worse is that Wesley didn’t even realise how bad it made her feel; another reason why people should think before they speak.

There was something about this book that made it really easy to read. The protagonists were all seventeen and the author was seventeen when she wrote it. This was obvious, and not in a bad way. Keplinger truly understood what it was like to be that age, and wasn’t afraid to show the explicitness that comes with it.

The true message is, everyone feels like a DUFF sometime in their life. Although your appearance isn’t all you are, when you’re a teenager, it sure feels that way. Because of this, I’d only recommend this book to people 16-18, so they could really connect and sympathise with the life of the teenager. If you’re younger or older than that, I think this book would either be inappropriate or feel too teen-drama-y.

Overall, I’d give ‘The Duff’ 3 stars. I didn’t like the use of words such as ‘whore’ and ‘slut’, because it contradicted the message of calling someone a ‘duff’. THERE IS NO SUCH THING. But, it did make me think, which is always a good thing. Although it has quite a niche market, this book is interesting and insightful.

Review: Take Back The Skies by Lucy Saxon

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18963158

Take Back The Skies by Lucy Saxon
Genre: Steampunk, Sci-Fi
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I will start by saying that the cover is absolutely beautiful, however I’m glad that I borrowed this novel from my library rather than buying it myself. Take Back The Skies is centred around Catherine, who runs away from home and becomes Cat, when she joins the ‘Stormdancer’ airship. Cat disguises herself as a boy to remain on the ship and throughout her adventure she learns some shocking things about her family.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the characters and the plot, I thought I should  say that I really loved the first 80 pages or so. I was completely engrossed in the story and the world building. I liked all of the character’s personalities to begins with and the writing style was engaging and new. Unfortunately, my enjoyment wasn’t sustained throughout the whole novel, and after the crew of the ‘Stormdancer’ discovered Cat’s identity I felt that the story went, perhaps not downhill, but sideways. This is an opinion that I read countless times in the reviews listed on GoodReads, and I have to say, I agree.

Let’s start with Cat: I liked her. She was a gutsy feminist who wasn’t going to put up with her father’s misogyny, or any one else’s for that matter. Until the end where she forgot how much she fought to be treated the same as Fox had when she kept her ‘gender bend’ identity. The ending disappointed me incredibly. Although Saxon has clarified that all Cat wanted to do was help her country, I still felt it wasn’t what she deserved. She was able to convince people that she had the right ideas on how to save the world, even though she was only 14 – the weight of the world on a 14 year old’s shoulders doesn’t sound too good to me, but luckily she was able to convince all of the characters that her knowledge of government buildings would suffice. Although I liked her, I also found her incredibly frustrating.

Fox is the love interest and I found him intriguing to begin with, but when the relationship element of the novel started, I became disinterested. Because suddenly he was just this ‘prince’ who could save Cat,  even though she’d tried so hard to make him realise that she was ‘who she was’ and no one could change that. Suddenly Saxon is perpetuating the idea of the girl being the Brains and the guy being the Brawn. The introduction of the love triangle was incredibly unnecessary. I thought that for once I’d get through a YA novel without there being two love interests, but no. Half way through and another contender to the title of ‘Cat’s prince’ is thrown at us. I didn’t connect to this second boy one bit, and as soon as he was introduced 18 year old Fox’s behaviour regressed into that of a 6 year old. They were petty and jealous, fighting over Cat like she was a possession. I particularly didn’t like the fact that Boy Number Two decided it would be okay to pursue Cat’s affections even though she had told him a firm ‘no’ multiple times. No means no.

The world building was paced well, even though it was only concentrated to one/two of the islands that made up the world. I would have liked to learn more about the other countries, and their histories, but for a first instalment I thought it was quite successful. Then the reveals about the governing body emerge and I’m starting to question whether the world building was successful or not, because I’m confused about who has the most power and who are the really important government officials.

I enjoyed the plot twists that kept the book going in between incredibly slow sections, where the only thing that happens is relationship development between the characters on the air ship. Whilst we’re on the topic of the airship, I’d like to say that I was rather surprised by the size of the crew. I was expecting something more along the lines of the pirate ship in Stardust or Treasure Planet the Disney movie.

WARNING: SPOILERS START HERE.

Because I disliked the ending so completely I though I would take a moment to reflect on it. So, Fox dies. I’ll admit that at one of the slow paced sections I flicked to the ending because all I could think was ‘what could possibly happen next?’ After reading the epilogue I came to my own conclusions that Fox had to die for the sake of plot. If he didn’t die it would’ve gone nowhere. Yeah, okay, so Cat lost her parents – she didn’t care about her father, but that’s another matter entirely – and there were lots of government conspiracies revealed about robotic/mechanic/cyborg children-hybrids, but these things were resolved within fifty pages of their reveal. So what was going to happen? Well, we’ve had the action and adventure side of the story, which leaves the romance. *sigh*

The relationship Cat had with her father is the last thing I wanted to mention in this review before it becomes a essay. In the beginning I thought he was a relatively unassuming character, and then it turns out that he physically abused Cat. For more than two thirds of the book Cat’s sole purpose for running away from home was because she didn’t want to be married off to a random stranger that she disgusted – oh the irony – and then she points out scars on her torso with elusive comments along the lines of, “she’d been punished for it. Hard.” It seemed clumsy, like the author had decided that she needed some character intricacies to drive the plot forward, therefore she thought she’d slip this bit of information in. But it’s not a little bit of informations, it’s HUGE, and should have been reinforced much sooner.

SPOILERS END HERE.

Overall, I would give Take Back The Skies 2.5 stars, because the beginning was so gripping, but the ending left something to be desired.

 

Review: Girl Online by Zoe Sugg with Siobhan Curham

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Girl Online by Girl OnlineZoe Sugg
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Penguin
Pages: 352
Format: E-Book
Rating: ★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Girl Online’ and the ghost writing scandal surrounding ‘Zoella’ has been one of the biggest things buzzing around the internet over the last couple of days. I’m not going to write about the ghostwriting in this review, simply the story and what I thought of the delivery, even though the fact Zoe Sugg didn’t write the book ‘entirely by herself’ is an important factor to how I received it.

Instead of giving my rating at the end of the review, I feel the need to preface my opinions. I only gave ‘Girl Online’ 1 star. There have been a lot of mixed reviews about this one, from one star to five stars, but there aren’t very many reasons why these ratings were given. Here are mine.

Firstly, the plot was not what I was expecting. Sugg seems to have followed the idea of ‘write what you know’, creating a fictional persona, rather than a character because of the vast similarities between herself and Penny. However, seeing as Sugg has over 6 million subscribers, I was surprised that this part of her life wasn’t utilised in the novel. It’s called ‘Girl Online’ because it’s meant to be about a girl who blogs anonymously online, but this only acted as a mere subplot. I was expecting Penny’s status as a blogger to play a much bigger role in the storyline, rather than to just be something quirky she did. Also, the panic attacks element to Penny’s character was not explained well, which left me feeling very confused whenever they occurred.

Secondly, the romance was ridiculous. Noah, her love interest, is introduced on the first day Penny is in New York and within about six hours, they’ve fallen in love. They’re sharing secrets they’ve never told anyone else, they’re sharing family traditions with each other, though they’re practically strangers. Noah was 18 and Penny was only 15, yet her parents were more than happy for her to run about a foreign city with a guy she just met. Hmm.

Along with the insta-love romance, everything just seemed a bit too convenient. Of course this rich American couple are going to pay for her family to have Christmas in New York to plan a wedding. Of course Penny’s allowed to bring her best friend with her. It’s so realistic that the Porter family got to stay in the states for another week, so Penny could spend more time with Noah(!).

This book was definitely split into distinct parts. The first part, which lasted for about 30% of the novel, was the most banal reading experience ever. Penny told, and didn’t show, the reader about her life, family and friends. Some horrific video was posted of her stumbling on stage onto the Internet, so she jetted off to New York to escape it all. New York took up the next 50%, which was probably the best bit, which isn’t saying much. Although the romance was so instant and made me roll my eyes too many times, it was still sweet. It had a ‘Just One Day’ feel to it. As soon as Penny returned home from NYC, the last 20% of the novel was devoted to revealing the promised ‘big secret’ of the blurb that Noah was hiding. This was interesting, as I’m sure Sugg has experienced online hate, so you could tell Penny’s feelings about it were genuine.

I did find it incredibly ironic that once the ghostwriting thing was revealed to the world, Sugg did exactly what Penny did and hid from the online world. Although, it seems Penny had more guts than she did, and overtly, with no shame, told the world her side of the story.

As I said, this book received 1 star. The inserted blog posts from ‘Girl Online’ were mediocre, the plot was average and predictable. What I thought would be delivered was not. This was generally a ‘young adult’ novel that only stood out because of the author, not because of the content (and even then, she didn’t write it all herself.) For me, this novel faded into the background and was a disappointing read.

Review: Pawn by Aimee Carter

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10838787Pawn by Aimee Carter
Genre: Dystopia, Romance
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 347
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Pawn is your classic dystopian world, where people are separated by their intellect and one girl gets to transcend the levels to defeat ‘the government.’ On the plus side, I managed to get though Pawn extremely quickly, on the down side, I wasn’t surprised by anything.

With the sudden surge of dystopian YA, after the success of The Hunger Games, you can guarantee that if there is an interesting and dynamic plot point, which adds to the dystopian world, then it’s been done before. Pawn was a culmination of everyone’s favourite plot points, but unfortunately I didn’t think it was executed as well as it could have been as a result.

I found myself getting really confused by the sheer amount of conspiracy plots in the Hart family. I couldn’t wrap my head around who was good and who was bad, and I certainly couldn’t tell you whose side I was on! Despite all of this drama I wasn’t particularly surprised by the ‘big’ reveals, because they were so ludicrous and it would have been better had they not been introduced. Without giving away any spoilers, if you’re planning on reading Pawn, don’t trust anyone.

The government system wasn’t well explained, and I wasn’t entirely sure what purpose the Hart’s played in the Feudal system. If no one liked them – not even the members of the Hart family liked one another – then why did it take 70 years for there to be a rebellion. The rebellion didn’t even really start in Pawn, it was more of just a 300-ish page prologue to the real action which I assume takes place in Captive.

I didn’t have a problem with Kitty as a main character, because she ‘fought back,’ even though she was pretty up for doing whatever as long as her boyfriend Benjy wasn’t in danger. Nice to see the gender roles being mixed up a bit, stick it to the patriarchy. Benjy was probably my favourite character, because I felt that he was the only one with an identifiable personality compared to Kitty who was going through a bit of an identity crisis.

Reading Pawn is like reading The Selection by Kiera Cass, but all the characters have had personality transplants. Pawn shared a lot of themes and the relationship dynamics between the ‘princess who’s not a princess,’ the ‘guard’ and the ‘prince.’ Therefore, if you enjoyed the love triangle in The Selection then you’d probably enjoy this book more than I did. Overall, I’m probably going to give Pawn two stars, because I didn’t enjoy the plot particularly and felt that the author relied on line breaks and chapter divisions to create tension rather than the plot actually being suspenseful. However, I did enjoy a few elements of the story and liked to have the inside look at the dystopian government, as it’s so often the case that we’re with the rebels on the outside rather than on the inside.

Review: Half Lies by Sally Green

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23361016Half Lies by Sally Green
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Published by: Penguin
Pages: 61
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I reviewed Half Bad a little while ago, and decided that it probably wasn’t going to be a series I would complete unless it was available at my library. However, I was totally ready for being in the same witchy world, but with different characters! I liked the last portion of Half Bad and Half Lies definitely explained some things!

It’s written in a diary format from the P.o.V of Michele, the sister of Gabriel who was probably my favourite character in the book. You can see just how lovely and protective Gabriel is, he’s such a considerate cutie! I think I connected with these characters more than I did with Nathan, so I hope there are more novellas like this in the future.

What I liked most was probably the length – only 61 pages! I thought that Half Bad was too slow for my liking, so to have the same sort of content e.g. witches finding their power, romance, and backstory explanations.

It’s exactly the kind of novel that I enjoy! If you like the Half Bad series, or heck, even if you weren’t the biggest fan of the first novel, then I definitely recommend reading Half Lies, because if anything, it’s made me a little more excited for the second book in the series.

Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

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19288043Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Genre: Mystery, Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Broadway Books
Pages: 422
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This book. How can I even explain this book without going into spoiler-y detail? I think it’s one of those reads where you read it and suddenly you’re in the know. You know the secrets that no one else does, so when you see someone reading it in public and they’re not at the bit, you can look at him or her with a smirk and think, “Just you wait, because you have no idea.”

I really enjoyed the writing style, it was so different from anything I’ve read before, not only because it was a roller coaster ride of emotions and a constant question of ‘is this real?’, but because the emotions felt insanely real. Disturbingly real.

I hated the ending. I’ll put that out there, because it was horrible. I suppose the ending is one of the reason’s why this book is talked about so much, because it’s so contraversial.

The characters were toxic and so was this book. It was so well paced with the different time lines and perspectives. It had me second-guessing everything I’d already read, and I was so surprised at the lengths these characters would go to get back at each other. There were slow sections that effortlessly built up to the next big reveal, and that reveal would shock you just as much – if not more- that than the last one.

If you do decided to pick up Gone Girl then don’t read ahead, don’t skip any sections and don’t look for spoilers. Also, don’t think that watching the movie trailer will give anything away, because it won’t. (I tried.) This book is full of suspense and mystery and is really worth the read!