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A review by randanopterix
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
2.0
This story was definitely hurt by its short length. I enjoyed the character building for the main character in the first half but the second half fell extremely flat for me.
I think the “reveals” at the end would have felt more earned if they had the opportunity to happen gradually. Instead everything was just sort of fed to us in one giant infodump right at the end and then story just sort of ended on a “okay but maybe I’m lying? 🤨”. I know Ms Flynn loves her surprise endings but it’s kind of hard to pull off one so convoluted in only like 60 pages.
I just ended up feeling kind of disappointed BUT, I read it in less than an hour by borrowing it from the Internet Archive so I don’t really have that much to complain about. I am glad I didn’t spend money on it though.
Update 10/13/2023: The further I get from this short story the uglier it sits in my mind. I think I hated this thing. A convoluted nothing plot that ended up not meaning a single thing at the end.
I think the “reveals” at the end would have felt more earned if they had the opportunity to happen gradually. Instead everything was just sort of fed to us in one giant infodump right at the end and then story just sort of ended on a “okay but maybe I’m lying? 🤨”. I know Ms Flynn loves her surprise endings but it’s kind of hard to pull off one so convoluted in only like 60 pages.
I just ended up feeling kind of disappointed BUT, I read it in less than an hour by borrowing it from the Internet Archive so I don’t really have that much to complain about. I am glad I didn’t spend money on it though.
Update 10/13/2023: The further I get from this short story the uglier it sits in my mind. I think I hated this thing. A convoluted nothing plot that ended up not meaning a single thing at the end.