I would have given this one at 4 stars had the ending not so disappointed me. My ebook version claimed to have 469 pages, so when what was to be the final twist occurred, I didn't expect it to be final. I thought, I am only on page 447, this can't end...like this! There are plenty of pages left to make it better! Not so. There is a long acknowledgments and plenty of other take-up-pages stuff. 
 Gone Girl is a psychological thriller with bizarre and random plot twists throughout its entirety. Nick's wife has gone missing, and his stoic attitude combined with the evidence points to his guilt. The reader gains good knowledge of Nick, his sister Margo, and (eventually) his wife Amy. The minor characters aren't touched on as much, but that is as it should be, and Flynn gives just enough detail about them that we need. 
 I experienced difficulty putting the book down. I normally only read just before bed, or while I am waiting for a child to be done with sports or an appointment. With Gone Girl, I craved so badly to find out WHAT HAPPENS NEXT that I made time to read it whenever I could during the day. It's a definite page-turner. And that is why I gave it three stars, and why I have mostly overlooked the painful, eye-rolling plot, the bizarre behavior of the characters, the horribly cliched and crazy moments as I found them. I didn't care about any of that, because it was that much fun to read. It's a sucker-inner. 
 And then that ending. BAH! It felt like the author had thrown every odd thing out there already and either couldn't come up with anything else, or felt those last few words would really tie it all together. It didn't do it for me. I'm not really sure what I wanted to happen, but it wasn't what did. Maybe this is Flynn's style? If I come across another of her books I will not hesitate to give it a try, though I won't seek them out either.