Had it been a little crisper and as edge-of-the-seat in terms of narrative as its story is, I would have considered it giving even a 5-star. But sadly, that isn't the case. Instead what you get is an elongated first half and an extremely slow build-up, so slow that after a while you stop caring about why and how and where did the Girl Go. And just when the narrative tests your patience, Flynn throws in a big twist (expected yet surprising) and suddenly you start rooting for poor Nick - whom you'd hated all along. 
 Flynn, in her never-ending book packs commentaries on Marriage, Unemployment, Media Circus and the thin veil between the Public and Private versions of one's life - all this while maintaining an aura of suspense and tension. The portrayal of how pathetic your life can turn out to be if you take one wrong decision of marrying a wrong person is in-the-gut scary - I mean nightmarish-ly scary, and one has to give the author the credit for her brilliance. 
 If only the girl had gone a tad little earlier. Recommended if you love psychological thrillers and are ready to invest a good amount of time on this 466-pages long saga of failed marriage, thrilling story and ample twists and turns.