Title: The Grownup
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publication Date: November 5, 2015
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pages: 79
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A young woman is making a living, faking it as a cut-price psychic working at Spiritual Palms (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, built in 1893. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home, and taking possession of the stepson. She has even found trickles of blood on the wall. The young woman doesn’t believe in exorcism or the supernatural, but she does see an opportunity to make a lot of money. However when she enters the house for the first time, and meets Miles, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time….
I have only read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it was a book I really enjoyed, so I was hopeful walking into The Grownup. I have heard that her other works aren’t as good as Gone Girl, but I still thought I would enjoy this short story. I was wrong. I didn’t enjoy a single thing about this book and I really only finished it because it was so short.
This is completely a matter of personal opinion, but I found the story to be unnecessarily crude. Our main character works in a psychic shop that also offers hand job services in the back room. And it felt like the entire first half of the book was just talking about servicing men. This is a subject I tend to avoid in general, but when I am reading a book that is this short, I really don’t want to spend half of it talking about sexual acts. I want to get into the story.
Once the story actually started picking up, it was definitely interesting…until the end. You know how in The Return of the King movie it fades to black about five times before the movie is actually over? So you keep thinking it’s done, until BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! That’s exactly what happened in this story. There was a twist at the end that was simple, nothing outlandish, but a solid end to the story. BUT WAIT! Another twist. Ok, fine, I liked the other one better, but sure, that works. BUT WAIT! There’s a twist on the twist! Or is there? Or isn’t there? Or….wait, I’m so confused. (In case it wasn’t already obvious, the ending completely ruined this book for me.)
Honestly, I wouldn’t waste my time picking this up. Yes, you could get through it quickly, but you could also spend that time reading a super awesome book that might become a new favorite. Apologies for the short review, but there is not much to elaborate on with such a short book. It was crude, underwhelming, confusing, and ultimately a big flop.
