The Grownup: A Story by the Author of Gone Girl

Very anticlimactic… that’s it. It was good, it kept me reading, but I hate the ending. Why would you leave it like that? lol

Having read all of Gillian Flynn's novels, I was not disappointed with this short story. Creepy doesn't begin to describe the teenager who lives with his parents in the old Victorian house that may or may not be haunted, but the kid is for sure. The book is written in first person, by a woman who's retiring from giving 'hand-jobs' because of carpal tunnel syndrome. "I quit because when you give 23,546 hands jobs over a three-year period, carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real thing." page 7I love how the heroine describes her customers. "They tend to be tense, nervous married men, men with midlevel, mostly powerless jobs. I'm just giving my assessment. They want you attractive but not slutty. For instance, in my real life, I wear glasses, but I don't when I'm in back because it's distracting--they think you're going to pull a Sexy Librarian act on them, and it makes them tense while they wait for the first chords of a ZZ Top song and then they don't hear stand they get embarrassed for thinking that you were going to do the Sexy Librarian and the whole thing takes longer than anyone wants." page 12-13 How can you not love that line?For such a short book, I swear that 5% of Flynn's wonderful-witty prose is highlighted. I'm not sure I ever learned what the main character's name was and she was such a strong, well-drawn character that I didn't even notice until I started writing this review. Born to a mother who was so lazy she couldn't even be bothered to get a job, but she did teach her daughter to beg. Here's a great line about how the heroine got into the job giving hand-jobs. "What I did was purely transactional: You made someone feel good and they gave you money. So you can see why the whole hand-job thing felt like a natural career progression." page 11With the whole carpal tunnel syndrome going on, our heroine had to find something new to do in order to support herself. Luckily the building she worked in had two career paths; hand jobs and fortune telling. Both meant to make the person feel like there was hope in the world. Our heroine becomes a psychic and that's when she meets Susan Burke and her creepy house, and creepier stepson.With all of her street sense, our heroine set to work clearing the energy of the house, and it's there when things start to go really wrong, or really right, depending on your point of view. The plot goes on from there, surprising and amusing in a sick way, until the end, which is really a great beginning which I hope Flynn continues with in a full length novel. I really loved the characters. No one does sociopath like Flynn. A fun hour of ready by an excellent author. Worth the money because you'll probably read it twice.

Wish it had a better ending and wish it was a horror story. I assume the author didn't know where to take it after a good start and middle, too convoluted of a plot at the end, but great writing and premise. Will read another book by author.

“The Grownup”, a 64-page short story by Gillian Flynn, was written in 2014 for an anthology edited by George R. R. Martin; now, it’s gotten published on its own, both as a Kindle single and in a physical copy. For fans of Gone Girl, the chance to get more of Flynn’s writing is a can’t miss opportunity; with only three novels under her belt, and none since the release of that powerhouse, fans (like me) have been waiting for something new. So it’s somewhat disappointing that “The Grownup” is as middling as it is, mainly thanks to a lackluster ending that falls short of the promise before it. “The Grownup” opens well, with a darkly hilarious pair of opening sentences that reminds you how much Flynn loves damaged, horrible people, and just how caustic her prose can be. And for most of the first half, things feel great, with Flynn spinning the story of a young woman who starts life as a con artist, moves on to sex work, and ultimately finds her way into the world of faux psychics, where she meets a desperate woman with all the makings for a perfect – and lucrative – victim. But when she goes to the woman’s house, things take a turn for the unsettling, with a haunted house, a malevolent step-son, and more. Flynn is wearing her influences on her sleeve – the narrator name drops stories like The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw – and it’s clear that she’s having fun. But the back half of the story feels incredibly rushed, with an ending that’s less a series of twist and more a series of odd swerves that we can’t ever trust, ending in a way that feels less open-ended and more inconclusive. Worse, though, for all of the nods to great haunted house stories, Flynn never really invests the house with the personality it needs to really be a good scary story. In some ways, that’s not surprising; Flynn lives and dies by her character work and her sharp voice, and neither entirely lend themselves to a supernatural horror tale. But maybe that’s a sign that she’s not really meant to push herself out of what she does so well, because while she’s in her wheelhouse, “The Grownup” is a blast; by the end, though, it all just fizzles out.

There are the makings of a really good book here, but it can’t be done in 62 pages. That being said, it’s Gillian Flynn and she is a genius and when your acknowledgments section simply references George R.R. Martin, who asked you to write him a story, there’s not a whole lot else to say.

I love Gillian's stories but I still struggle not to feel frustrated with open endings. Other than that, it was fast paced, engaging and thrilling.

A versão do ebook é ótima e não apresentou nenhum problema de digitação e minha única crítica é que ao ler no kindle o nome marcado na mansão é de difícil leitura mesmo que se aumente a fonte do ebook.O final do ebook contém um excerto de Dark Places, que eu recomendo se você gostou desse conto.O conto em si é uma amostra grátis do trabalho de Flynn tanto pelo tamanho quanto pela qualidade. A história e os personagens são envolventes, Flynn trabalha a narração em primeira pessoa de um modo incrível que expressa muito bem os personagens e o tom da história mas o fim da trama apesar de interessante deixa bastante a desejar.

Couldn’t put it down. I wanted to have more for the ending. So for that reason only I didn’t give it five start. I wanted more!!! :)

Bom entretenimento, faz com que queiramos continuar lendo para descobrir como a trama se desenrola

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