In the community

Vale Book Club takes up chilling novel for April meeting

Books on the Vale Book Club’s reading list can be checked out at the Vale Library. (The Enterprise file)

“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn is the story of a perfect wife’s disappearance which plunges her husband into a nightmare, reveals ugly secrets about their outwardly ideal marriage and hints at his culpability in her death.

Marge Mitchell will facilitate discussion of this novel with members of the Vale Book Club at 7 p.m. this Thursday, April 8, at the home of Carol Spears, 683 Cottage St. S.

The tale follows Nick and Amy Dunne, who left New York City after he lost his writing job. They return to his family home in North Carthage, Missouri, reputedly to care for ailing parents. 

Nick opens a bar with his twin sister, and takes one of his graduate students as a mistress. 

However, the world sees Nick and Amy as Mr. and Mrs. Right – until their fifth anniversary, when Amy vanishes with every indication of foul play.

The police and the public turn against Nick but he is suddenly saved by her reappearance with a bizarre tale of kidnapping and murder. The narrative goes back and forth between the minds of the principals, revealing chilling levels of psychopathy and unrelenting plot twists.

A Kirkus reviewer described reading Flynn’s work as feeling like falling into a dark rabbit hole. 

The book club’s selection for May is “Nomadland” and the club will read “The Grapes of Wrath” during the summer for comparison. 

For information about the club, call Lucy Hutchens, 208-739-6954, or Marge Mitchell, 208-739-6777.

Note: Review information was excerpted from online Kirkus Reviews and The Bookish Elf.

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