“Flynn is a brilliant plot-twister and manipulator of readers’ expectations. The Grownup keeps you guessing until the end – and beyond.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn is a short story by the author of ‘Gone Girl’.

The protagonist, a young woman working as a ‘palm-reader’, likes to ‘read’ people as well, guessing their inner hopes and thoughts. She is doing fairly well, getting by, by telling people what they want to her, that is until Susan Burke turns up.

With stories of a spooky house and a scary stepson, the young woman thinks she can ‘help’ and make a decent wage from doing very little.

Then the book takes a dramatic twist from humour to thriller and back to humour again, Flynn certainly keeps you thinking right till the end. With an interesting mix of characters who develop and change throughout the story, the reader is kept in the dark about the readers real intentions and personalities. Even when the story is finish the author leaves you thinking about the conclusion.

A quick and easy read that ‘Gone Girl’ fans will enjoy. Not what I expected when I started it, but as it progressed it matched what I know of Flynn’s previous writing style and made an interesting read.

 

Reviewed by:

Catherine Muxworthy

Added 15th December 2015

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Catherine Muxworthy