A thoughtfully curated selection of Gone Girl readalikes
Thank goodness someone finally made a list of books like Gone Girl, right?
Groan, I know. Ever since Gone Girl was published/became the superstar of the psych suspense litworld, there seems to be a law requiring 1 out of every 3 books to have “Perfect for fans of Gone Girl” emblazoned upon its cover, and there are hundreds of readalike lists for Gone Girl already available. The problem is how wildly inaccurate they can be. The Girl on the Train, while a fine book in its own right, is NOTHING like Gone Girl. They’d be introduced by the host of a party with a well-intentioned, “OMG—you two are just perfect for each other,” but their similarities are so superficial, it would be an awkward evening for both of them.
Gone Girl became a phenomenon not because it was simply a good psychological suspense novel with an unreliable narrator and plot twists that kept readers in a perpetual state of imbalance, but because Flynn took these basic trappings of the domestic thriller and forced the reader to examine their own romantic relationships, providing a powerful cautionary tale of what ill-will can fester when a relationship slides into complacency. It’s a twisted love story about how restlessness can infect a relationship when it seems like only one of the parties is contributing to keeping it afloat and the lengths a person can go to in order to avoid stagnating into “comfortable” and losing that spark of the early days of romance. It’s about how a good relationship is work and requires effort, respect, and sacrifice, and if one person isn’t pulling their weight, they can be scolded for this in a very destructive way.
That’s not something you’re going to come across in many books, nor would you want to. And while I understand that readalike lists aren’t meant to provide exact matches for a title, too many of them seem like lazy catch-all groupings of “any psych suspense book written by a woman or featuring a problematic female character.”
And I think we can do better than that.
So, here is a list of ten books that share specific elements with Gone Girl, and use them well, without being audacious enough to claim to be “just like” Gone Girl. Several predate Gone Girl (some by a LOT), so there’s no copycatting here—just some books that may appeal to the Gone Girl fan whether the reader is drawn to marriage thrillers, books with unreliable narrators, antiheroes, twists, missing persons, “he said she said” structures, or just general psych suspense, written well.
There were some honorable mention titles that I cut to keep the list to 10, and there are many more excellent readalikes out there in the genre, but these are the ones I think represent the broadest range of appeal factors while also including some lesser-known books.
If none of these look like your thing, there’s no shortage of other Gone Girl lists out there, believe me!
A twisty, mind-bending novel about marriage, murder, and secrets, in which a man becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his wife; a woman he adored even though he often found himself imagining her death. The unconventional structure and competing narratives cause the same reader-dislocation as in G.G., and the references to Escher, Hitchcock, and Mobius within are indications of the kind of ride you’re in for.
Originally published in 1945, this noir classic features the titular Bedelia as a proto-Amy Dunne—a male fantasy come to life—as proficient in the kitchen as she is in the bedroom, seeming to live only for pleasing her husband. But Bedelia’s a true femme fatale, with a string of bodies in her past, and there’s more to her than meets the eye.
This one is matched for the prolonged feelings of tension and dread it inspires in its readers. It’s Tana French’s twistiest book yet, and like Gone Girl, just when you think you have a handle on what’s going on, she’ll rip the rug out from under you and you’ll be spiraling out into the land of second-guessing once more. That’s a rare thing in a world with so many well-written mystery novels; the ability to surprise.
This one is a match for character and nothing else. Serena is the ultimate take-no-prisoners wife, who joins her husband in the logging community where he’s already established himself enough to have fathered a child on a local girl, and begins to calmly unleash a world of hurt. Like Amy Dunne, she addresses the problems threatening her marriage with calculated strategies that are even more destructive than in G.G.
I’ve called this “Gone Girl with slightly nicer people,” and met with both resistance and agreement. But it is. Not only in its structure, where we see both spouse’s side of their story, but they are a beautiful couple envied for their perfect marriage, while beneath the glitter is a nest of secrets and lies. It’s not as toxic as G.G., but it’s a fascinating examination of the sacrifices and secrets of a marriage.
An oldie-but-goodie, this Victorian novel is the great-grandmother of Gone Girl, featuring a spectacularly calculating woman with ambitions in a time when women didn’t have the luxury of having ambitions. So, she uses what she does have to get what she wants: skillful lies, her beauty, and a facade of demure femininity, while underneath her mask of meekness, she’s plotting like mad. Oh, and she has a secret.
The plot is more Patricia Highsmith than Gillian Flynn: a man with a cheating wife spills his guts to a stranger on…an airplane, who offers to kill her for him. But here, the offer comes from a woman with a sense of proportional justice and moral relativism as rigid and skewed as Amy Dunne’s, with whom she shares many qualities. It also uses the same alternating POV as G.G., and is as full of twists and surprises.
This is the perkier, book-clubbier buddy of Gone Girl, in which a woman reads a letter her husband wrote to be opened after his death revealing a secret that will ripple-effect into the lives of several women. If Amy Dunne terrified you, this book may be a good alternative—a secret-based marriage story with less abject sociopathy.
Yeah, I didn’t know it was a book, either. This was the basis for the Gus Van Sant film in which Nicole Kidman gives her best performance to date, as a woman with dreams of T.V.-journalist stardom who manipulates her young lover into killing her dead-weight husband while she maintains her squeaky-clean all-American smile. Another chilling example of a manipulative woman getting what she wants no matter what.
Gone Girl Parody: So Far Gone, Girl
Ok, this one is “just like Gone Girl,” but a cheeky version, with all the tension recast as humor. Reading this will give you a break from staring suspiciously at your partner, wondering what they’re plotting. But don’t let your guard down too much! Do something romantic for your sweetie, but not so romantic that they start giving YOU the suspicious stare, wondering what guilt inspired your gesture. Balance is key.
