The Grownup: A Story by the Author of Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Gillian Flynn’s Edgar Award-winning homage to the classic ghost story, published for the first time as a standalone.

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan’s terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan’s teenage stepson, doesn’t help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.

“The Grownup,” which originally appeared as “What Do You Do?” in George R. R. Martin’s Rogues anthology, proves once again that Gillian Flynn is one of the world’s most original and skilled voices in fiction.

• ISBN10: 0804188971
• ISBN13: 9780804188975
• Publish Date: 3 November 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 64
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804188975

Reviews

A short story from Gillian Flynn. It was creepy in a fun way and I liked the interesting ending. Quick, fun read.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

First Impressions

The first sentence in The Grownups by Gillian Flynn includes the words "hand job". I wasn't sure how I felt about that. What direction will the story take? To be frank, it was a turn-off.

Impressions While Reading

The Grownups was odd, to say the least. An unnamed psychic who knows how to show a guy a good time is called upon to cleanse a house. The eerie nature of the home and its residence was reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. The characters were creepy, giving the impression that something was not right and far from feng shui. As for the house, it creaked and gave off a sense of being haunted. If walls could talk I'd like to know what these have to say.

Final Impressions

The Grownups by Gillian Flynn was an old-fashioned ghost story. The ending left chills and thought that this story was just beginning. It reminded me of the ghost story about "The Hook". A rattling noise on a car door was not in the driver's imagination after all. It was psychological and kept this listener's attention with eyes wide open.

[readingwithwrin]

“Millions of dollars later, and neither of them were happy. Money is wasted on the rich.”

I've never been a big fan of Gillian Flynn and wasn't expecting much from this book. Which I am glad I didn't.
We start with an unnamed female who gives hand-jobs for a living until she has to stop due to injury and has to become a "psychic". What really happens is that this unnamed women has been raised to be a con-artist by her mom, until unnamed women dropped out of high school and leaves to start conning on her own.
Once this women, becomes a "psychic" one of her clients needs her "help" due to her step-son being very mean and malicious to her and her son. As this unnamed women start's helping this client she realizes that something really is going on and that this women need's help from someone besides her or does she..This client's whole family is so messed up, and so is this unnamed women who in the end just goes along with what's happening and lets it start becoming her new con.
See reviews first on my blog