A review by athirah_idrus
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

 

From the amazing author who bamboozled my mind with Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, I should have known I’d be left feeling..frazzled – I was feeling emotionally exhausted but not necessarily in a bad way - after reading this short novella. 

Fans of Gillian Flynn would recognize her signature twists, just as you were about to sit comfortably and enjoy a dark armchair fantasy, she’d jolt you with the sudden deviations, centralizing POVs of unreliable narrators. 

Despite the length (at less than 100 pages), the story had a pretty rich plot. A young woman, who was making a living by engaging in ‘benign’ frauds, took an opportunity to sell her services as a seer. A married woman sought her help with her house that she claimed was haunted. The customer introduced herself as Susan, and she seemed to be from a well-to-do family that our narrator judged would potentially be a boon to her service. 

Things took a dark turn when she went to Susan’s house to ‘cleanse’ it off bad spirits. 

I loved the twists in the book, and even though I knew to expect them, the way they went certainly caught me off-guard. If you’re looking for an engaging short read, pick up this one. You won’t regret it. 

Or would you?