A canny young woman struggles 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.
~ Synopsis from GoodReads
Review of The Grownup
This short story was initially included in the Rogues compendium by George R.R. Martin. Then later, it got spun off into its own very short novella (about 60 pages approx in large print).
I loved the concept of the story. The beginning is really promising and in true Gillian Flynn style – meaning an obnoxious heroine.
I didn’t stop giving hand jobs because I wasn’t good at it. I stopped giving hand jobs because I was the best at it.
She soon finds herself in a creepy, ghostly situation and has to determine if there is a haunting or if she’s getting scammed.
And this is where the book started to lose me. For a heroine who is supposedly street smart and canny – she’s the one who scams people, I found her pretty dumb. She believes everything that is said to her.
The non-ending was also disappointing. This is a book with too many twists that weren’t developed adequately. While I read it as a quick read within an hour, it felt like she could have taken a little more time and pages to develop the story fully in a longer format.
It just felt a little unfinished and raw to me – kind of like she published some old college writing assignment.
