I have never read a Gillian Flynn book before this one. There I said it. I feel like everyone has read a Gillian Flynn book as they are so highly proclaimed, and I’ve actually had Gone Girl sitting on my shelf for some time. However when The Grownup was released back in November 2015 I figured it might be a good place to start with Gillian Flynn as it is only 67 pages after all.
Title: The Grownup
Author: Gillian Flynn
Genre: Short Story, Supernatural, contemporary
Publisher: W&N
Publication Date: November 5th 2015
Pages: 96
Summery : A young woman is making a living faking it as a cut-price psychic (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke.
Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year-old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home. The young woman doesn’t believe in exorcism or the supernatural. However when she enters the house for the first time, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time.
The Grownup follows a sex worker turned psychic who one day comes across Susan Burke. Susan is struggling at home with her husband’s child and claims that there is something strange happening in the house.
I wasn’t sure what to think about this to begin with, it seemed too short to go anywhere within the crime genre (I don’t know why but I always assume crime books need a lot of detail.) In the end I was actually surprised at the supernatural twists that this short story took. It was a very welcome twist, but not what I was expecting at all.
There wasn’t much explained because it was such a short story, but it was interesting and fast paced and incredibly written. Those were the things that I could not fault at all about the novel.
My one down point was the ending was a little bit vague. After such a quick read I wanted the novel to tie up in the end, whereas it left the interpretation right down to the reader and a little bit lack luster. I definitely didn’t hate the ending or the story itself. The storyline I found to be exciting and a pretty great read, but I just felt like it needed something else at the end to clear up some of the points that were left a little loose. There were a few characters that we just lost sight of.
However I tend to agree with endings of novels and try and see it the way the author intended, after all they wrote the ending like that for a reason! This short story will literally take you an hour maximum to read, if you’re interesting in supernatural fiction or just generally like Gillian Flynn’s writing, it’s a must read!
The Little Contemporary Corner 