Book review- Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

Since I have decided to join the rambling wagon started by Shail (of Shailsnest) this month and I am I am already lagging behind on a couple of posts, I thought, why not ramble about one of the few good books I read in 2014: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

I have been hearing about this book from a lot of sources: my friends, the blogs I stalk, goodreads, social networking sites, you get the picture, but somehow, though, I had this book in my Kindle, I never got around to reading it. It was only after I heard from the PC about the movie that my curiosity was finally piqued. I got to reading it and my reading being a million times faster than my writing, I finished reading it in a night. Okay, enough about me, lets get talking about the book; because after all, this is a book review!

Gone Girl is a book that starts with a interesting premise. A beautiful, intelligent, city-bred and discontent wife disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary from her small town home, in what seem like suspicious circumstances. As the book progresses, the husband is considered as the main suspect due to his seeming indifference to the wife's abduction, his inability to explain his whereabouts on the morning of the incident lots of other pieces of circumstantial evidence. In addition, the wife has devised a treasure hunt to rekindle the spark that his fizzed out of their romance. The husband Nick Dunne is clueless and evasive about their relationship. Conflicting accounts, lies and evasions of the Dunne marriage escalate the suspicion on Nick who is desperately searching for his wife.

I have read several reviews of this book (from the many sources I mentioned earlier) and so I knew the plot before hand, but once I started reading, I could not put this book down. The book is written in alternate POV, making the narration all the more interesting. The suspense, the thought process that has gone into every scene, twist, turn kept me hooked till the end. It is one of those books that make you look at the world and the people around you in a different way.

This is the first book I have read from this author, and I can not wait to devour more of her books. I would say, if you like suspense, and have not already seen the movie Gone Girl (isn't Ben Affleck so ultra cute!!) go ahead and pick this book. It does not have spies, takeovers and international politics but shows us that marriage can sometimes be the biggest power struggle.      

                          

Five Sentence Fiction- Bedtime

As she cowered in the corner of her room, she knew that locked doors served no protection against the actual terrors of the night.She had not had a full night's sleep in five years, not since the summer she turned seven and her ecstatic mother introduced her to her new 'father'.
Every day after bedtime, her 'father' paid her a visit, muffling her screams with grimy hands, killing her innocence bit by bit. But when those beady eyes started focusing on her six-year old sister, she knew she had to slay the monster living in their midst. Today, the shivering hands hidden behind the cowering body held the biggest knife from the kitchen, ready to vanquish the monster of her nightmares, for once and for all.

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What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Lillie McFerrin (http://lilliemcferrin.com/) posts a word prompt every week for inspiration  and anyone wishing to participate may write a five sentence story based on the prompt word.

This week's prompt is Bedtime.

The first post of 2015- Missing most things

Well, 2014 passed off in a breeze. I can not believe that it already a month past in the new year. 2014 brought a huge change in my life, I moved from India to the US in mid- December. Perhaps the excitement of the move, coupled with the fact that I was going to travel alone can excuse the scarce number of posts since September...Perhaps not. :) The fact of the matter is that I began so many posts in my mind while completing my chores, while travelling, at work and so on, but as soon as I opened the laptop to write something, poof! all those  thoughts disappeared like fog on a sunny day! Hello, blogger's block :)


So now it has been nearly one and half month in the US, and since the initial chaos of relocation is wearing off, I have started missing most things from my life back in Bangalore.  I miss so many things from back home already- my family, friends, the weather, the street food, my team, the list just goes on.Back in Bangalore, me and the PC used to stay alone in an apartment near by to our offices, the in-laws stay at the other end of the city and my parents stay in my native town. So, some times it used be a couple of weeks between visits to the in-laws and in the case of my parents, it used to be months, But still, here I feel like I have not seen them since forever.I am already missing my parents' visits to Bangalore, when I used to be treated like a princess. :(
I miss my gang of friends from office, the numerous tea breaks, walks after lunch, frequent trips to the malls and so many more things. Here, the weather is currently too cold to allow many excursions outside and so its just home to office and back for me... I am staying with two wonderful roommates- R1 and R2. R1 is planning to return to India soon, so most of the weekends have been spent in shopping, window shopping and basically just having fun. I have realized that living with someone will make you very close to them, I did not know R1 or R2 before coming here, but within 5 odd weeks, we have become bosom buddies :):). Being a vegetarian, my options to eat at office are severely limited here, so we cook everyday, together, chat, tell each other secrets, giggle like teenagers, watch movies and shows on Netflix and call it a night.

 A major change in my life is that the PC is still in India. It is the first time that we have not been together to bring in the New Year since we got married. So New Year's was a a subdued affair for both of us. Here is to hoping me and my Prince Charming (PC) spend all the coming new years together :):)

So this is normally contrary me, blogging again after a hibernation of sorts, alone in a new country in a new year, rambling about everything and anything around me. I am a huge and mostly silent fan of Shail's Nest (http://shailsnest.com/) and thanks to her new tag, I have finally written (more like scribbled)  a complete post after realizing I have done zilch writing for this year! I do not know if this qualifies for Shail ji's tag, but sure hope it does :) First post in 2015, yay!!!

Verses and prose

Here is a list of all the poetry published on this blog:

• Solitary Quest
• Soulmates
• When you come back
• Lost Love

Five sentence fiction more to your taste? Read on,

• Bedtime

Solitary Quest

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There she goes, towards the intangible horizon

walking with steps measured  and sure

Creating ripples as she crosses the rivers of pain

Shielding eyes from ever-present censure

Stepping over shards of dreams slain

There she goes, towards the intangible horizon

On her solitary quest for the elusive shore

Her determination her only armor

Forged by fire,she emerged, stronger than before

And in the eye of the storm,

She stands smiling, her incongruous thoughts calmer.

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For this poem, I have not followed any form (no surprise there!). I came across this prompt ad have tried to do justice to Magpie's picture.
Linking this poem to Magpie Tales: Mag 238. Image source: The same prompt.

Soulmates

Poetry is something that has always mesmerized me. The way the words are threaded into beautiful strings to show the depth of human emotion takes away my breath!
Recently, I came to know of different poetry forms; talk about method to the madness of poetry. The use of innumerable permutations and combinations to come up with the exact number of syllables fascinates and scares me at the same time. I mean, come on,a-b-c-c-b-c-b-a?? really??
Still, like my dad always tells me, if its been done, there is a way to do it! You just have to figure it out. If it hasn't been done, you get the chance to be the first... Yaay you! And if you knew me, you would know, figuring out a puzzle always fascinates me :):)

I decided to start with something simple. Because following the rules on this form of poetry itself for daunting for the non-conformist in me or because I did not want the multi-headed dragon that is poetry forms to slay me at our first skirmish!!

Here is my maiden attempt at Palindrome Poetry... Presenting SOUL-MATES

Sunrise to sunset

Together walking

Fingers entwined

Impossible dreams realized

Promised love forever

Soul-mates

Forever love promised

Realized dreams impossible

Entwined fingers

Walking together

Sunset to sunrise

*** Definition from www.shadowpoetry.com: Also Known as Mirrored Poetry

A palindrome, by definition, is a word, phrase, verse, sentence, or even poem that reads the same forward or backward. It stems from the Greek word palindromos: palin, meaning again, and dromos, meaning arunning. Combining the two together, the Greek meaning gives us, running back again...

Phew!!! That was a tough cookie. All those people who write poetry strictly to form, I bow down to you!! 

Random!

Well, more than half the year is over. And my resolution to keep this place alive is failing

badly. Today, as I type this while I am stuck in traffic I realized that I can blame busy

schedules, work stress for this oversight or be a man(a woman, in this case!!) and

accept that if I had set my priorities straight, I would have managed to make the time

like so many other busy bloggers whom I read about all the time.

I have found that given the option of reading versus writing, I tend to choose reading

every time, albeit by habit. Does this happen to you too? Knowing your problem is half

the solution, or so I have read (well-read, moi :)). So what about the other half you ask??

The other half comes from consciously deciding to write and make the time to write.

Lets see how it goes.. Fingers crossed!!!