Gillian Flynn's strong finish to "Gone Girl" salvaged the novel for me. A series of well-imagined plot twists overcame my problems with the book's first half.
As the novel progresses, Flynn gives her characters sharper definition and creates scenes that have strong dramatic interest. Reaching for outrageous, if at times muddled satire, she targets male-female relations, our sensationalistic celebrity-media culture and the decline of the American economy.
The novel comes to an unsatisfactory conclusion, however. After a series of well-imagined developments, she settles for a predictable outcome for the twisted married couple at the book's center. Her deliciously evil and outrageously inventive main female protagonist is reduced to a conventional 1950s housewife.
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