Revisiting ‘Gone Girl’

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amy and Nick Dunn have the perfect life and are the perfect couple until they reach a breaking point, revealing their true selves. The book that spawned dozens of imitators but few peers, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is this week’s read on the latest Books We’ve Loved. Andrew Limbong and B. A. Parker are joined by Greta Johnsen to divulge how this suspense thriller continuously brings fans back to this story. Special guest, Andrea Bartz, shares how being from the Midwest, like Flynn, is your best tool to write a mystery.

Greta’s Recommendation: ‘Fates and Furies’ by Lauren Groff

Parker’s Recommendation: ‘My Sister, the Serial Killer’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Andrew’s Recommendation: ‘Liars’ by Sarah Manguso

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I think it's kind of a subversion in a lot of ways of the like 90s quote unquote feminism that was so focused on the male gaze, right?
0:07.2	It was like, well, it's empowering to be sexy.
0:09.4	So yeah, if you fit all these very narrow parameters of like what's hot, then you're empowering yourself and that's feminism.
0:16.4	But then Amy owns her rage from having to contort herself for so long.
0:21.7	You're listening to Books We've Loved from NPR.
0:24.4	The book show where we reread old favorites and tell you why they still matter today.
0:29.9	I'm Andrew Limbaugh.
0:30.9	And I'm Bea Parker.
0:32.4	What's up, Parker?
0:33.5	Hi, Andrew.
0:35.4	You have been talking about this book since, since like the first day we started this project.
0:39.4	We've made it.
0:40.3	Congratulations.
0:41.1	You did it.
0:41.8	First, I want to thank you, most importantly, for your patience and your tolerance of my fervor for this book.
0:49.6	But first, can we get into who our guest is today?
0:53.4	We've got with us, Greta Johnson. Greta co-host the HBO's official Game of Therwin's podcast. Flex. And, close the upcoming podcast, happy to be here, which is formerly called Nerdette. She also writes the Greta Graham newsletter on Substack. What's up, Greta? Hey, hi, Andrew, hi, Parker. I'm so glad to talk about this book with y'all. This is going to be fun. I'm sure you're happy to be here. I am happy to be here. Thank you, Parker. You said that so maliciously. No, that was, no, that was my... No, man, I set that up. I was very church nice... No, that was my inner Amy Dunn. No, leave me alone.
1:31.5	But, okay, I guess we should say, Gileon's gone girl.
1:35.3	A hefty one, yeah.
1:36.7	We got bigger books down the line.
1:40.9	Don't you judge my gone girl.
1:43.4	Yeah, yeah.
	...

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