'Gone Girl' Legacy: How the Bestseller Changed the Psychological Thriller Market

No​​ matter how many times it happens, I'm still excited every time I get my hands on an advance reading copy of a book that has yet to be published. How thrilling to turn to page one with almost no idea what I'm in for, before review coverage has begun, before any overly enthusiastic friend gives too much away.

When I received a galley of Gone Girl in 2011, I had no preconceived notions other than the fact that I knew that author Gillian Flynn had written two prior thrillers, and I'd been a fan of her work when she was on staff at Entertainment Weekly. I was certainly not primed to expect a perfectly paced and perfectly nuanced he said/she said story, especially not one with an audacious plot twist that strikes right smack in the middle of the book and absolutely blows up every word that has come before. I had never read anything quite like it. I still have never read anything like it. Although now, ten years after the official publication of Gone Girl, many others have tried to emulate its style and edge.