“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…“
[This is the first line from the book]
I’ll be honest. The first two lines of this book made me think, “Ok wow, this woman is not even trying to act normal.” If a book doesn’t slap you awake in the first paragraph, what’s the point?
The story circles around three very questionable people, a fake psychic who’s bored with her own lies, a rich woman who thinks her house is turning against her, and a stepson who looks innocent until he opens his mouth. You know from page one that none of them are normal, and that’s exactly why the whole thing feels dangerous.
The Grownup is straight up chaotic. Gillian Flynn also the Author of Gone Girl doesn’t ease you in. She throws you into a narrator’s life who is messy, petty, sharp, sarcastic, and absolutely not trying to be a hero.
This book feels like you’re listening to someone rant in a room with the lights off. There’s a vibe of “I’m not proud of this but I’m not lying either.” You know those people who overshare in the most entertaining way? The narrator is exactly that.
A fake psychic gets tangled with a rich woman who thinks her house is haunted and her stepson is evil. Sounds simple, right? Nope. Flynn twists it so many times you start questioning every single character including the narrator who literally scams people for a living.
What I like is how the book plays with your brain. You keep thinking you figured out who’s lying, who’s creepy, or who’s manipulating who. Then the story suddenly flips and you’re left sitting there thinking, “Great, I’m the idiot here.”
The house feels hostile from the moment it enters the story. The kid feels unsettling in that quiet, calculated way. The narrator is unreliable by default because she lies for a living. And the rich lady has this desperate, shaky energy that makes everything a little more chaotic. Every time you feel sure about what’s happening, the book twists just enough to make you doubt the entire cast again.
It’s a short story, roughly sixty pages, and you can finish it in one sitting without even trying. The ending adds a small twist that changes how you look at the characters, and it wraps up in a way that fits the messy tone of the whole book. Flynn leaves just enough confusion at the end to make you think about what exactly the characters were doing.
If you want something clean or moral, don’t even bother. But if you want a smart, slightly unhinged, creepy, sarcastic story that feels like gossip from someone you really shouldn’t trust, then The Grownup is exactly that.
Millions of dollars later, and neither of them were happy. Money is wasted on the rich.
Gillian Flynn. The Grownup
Added to my read list