Goodreads Book Review - The Grownup

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this back when it was called "What Do You Do?" in one of George R.R. Martin's anthologies, Rogues. It's very much typical of what you'd expect from a Gillian Flynn work: first-person female narration, seedy snark and cynicism, and a twist (or two, or three; who's counting?) at the end. One of Flynn's strengths, which is on display here, is how fully realized and developed all the characters are, not just the narrator, which is something that isn't easy to pull off in first-person narration. The language Flynn uses is snappy and sharp, and is fun to read. Now, the drawbacks. After the setup, which takes up a large part of the story, the climax feels rushed. And I wasn't kidding when I said there were multiple twists, and it just feels like too many, especially coming as they do in a very short span of pages. The ending is wholly unrealistic, but it's fiction so I don't hold that against it. In fact, I wouldn't mind a follow-up to check in on the characters down the road a ways.


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