Book Review: The Grown Up

‘The Grown Up’ is an Edgar Award winning short story by the celebrated author Gillian Flynn of ‘Gone Girl’ fame. This novella is Gillian’s homage to the classic ghost stories. It was originally published in an anthology edited by George RR Martin but was later released as a standalone volume.

This intentionally twisted story is about a young girl who has been doing hand jobs to earn money and survive. With time she leaves doing hand jobs except for a few select clients. Now she takes up aura reading. She pretends to be an aura reader and makes money out of unsuspecting clients. One day Susan Burke walks in who seems quite troubled due to her shaky marriage mainly because of her step-son, Miles. Seeing rich Susan, the ‘psychic’ takes it as an opportunity to make some fortune and enter into high class through Susan. She tells Susan that her palatial Victorian Home might be haunted and offers to cleanse the house of negativity in exchange for a handsome sum of money per visit. However in her subsequent visits, the psychic seems to genuinely believe that the place is haunted. Susan’s step son Miles also seems very creepy and sinister. The psychic finds herself trapped in the situation and longs to get out. But all is not that it seems…

I will not kill the suspense by writing the entire story for you. Gillian Flynn has woven a very thrilling suspense in the story. In fact, I couldn’t really make out in the end what exactly the truth was. This short story is worth a read if you like reading thrillers and suspense. After ‘Gone Girl’, Gillian Flynn has again proved that she is unparalleled in writing dark and suspense stories. Her modern take on the classic haunted house story is so well executed that it’s hard to keep the book down once you start reading.

The only downside is that the story is too short (Just 65 pages) and ends a bit abruptly. You can easily finish this in an hour or so.

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