Welcome to My Monday Minis Reviews where I share short reviews of books I’ve read. For today I’ll be sharing my review of
The Grownup
by Gillian Flynn
My Review
After reading and loving all of the twisted mystery in Gone Girl, I was thrilled to win this wicked little ghost story by Gillian Flynn in a giveaway.
You never learn the name of the narrator. Her story is sad, her job a dirty one, and you can’t blame her when she tries to break away from it. What’s a little harmless fraud. No real victims. Or so she thinks.
She jumps at the chance to help Susan, a rich, desperate woman, with claims of a horrible haunting at her Victorian mansion. Our narrator walks into something she couldn’t imagine in her worst nightmares.
I was shocked right from the beginning. This author doesn’t fail to grab you by the shirt and pull you right into the story. She has you thinking a character deserves sympathy, can be trusted. Then she drops little bombs and has you backtracking, rethinking your feelings.
At just over 60 pages, I was thrilled with how well executed this taut little horror went. The mystery of what is really going on sets you back on your heels. The creep factor is off the scales. And you’ll never see the ending coming.
Reminded me of an episode I watched on Twilight Zone.
A great nibble of twisted mystery to tide you over between Gillian’s novels.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
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.
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This counts towards my Horror Reading Challenge.
