The Grownup

 [a:Gillian Flynn|2383|Gillian Flynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1232123231p2/2383.jpg]'s 2014 [b:The Grownup|26025580|The Grownup|Gillian Flynn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441679582l/26025580.SY75.jpg|45948939] is a short ghost story that was, the cover says, "A special gift from the Book of the Month Club." It origionally appeared in George R.R. Martin's Rogues anthology with the title What Do You Do? I'd never read anything by Flynn, so I figured this was my chance.
 It's fine for its genre, but writing about it now, nearly a month after reading it, I realize I've forgotten most things about it. The main thing I remember is that it begins describing how its main character, a female sex worker, came to leave that line of work. I have no objection to that kind of thing, but in this current era of idiots wanting to ban books, I couldn't help seeing this as a poor marketing decision.
 I like the way Flynn writes, though.

 It lurked. It was the only remaining Victorian house in a long row of boxy new construction, and maybe that's why it seemed alive, calculating. The mansion's front was all elaborate, carved stonework, dizzying in its detail: flowers and filigrees, dainty rods and swooping ribbons. Two life-sized angels framed the doorway, their arms reaching upward, their faces fascinated by something I couldn't see.
 I watched the house. It watched be back through long, baleful windows so tall a child could stand in the sill. And one was.

I obviously know about the permanently-famous Gone Girl book, written by Gilllian Flynn. However, I’ve never read the book nor watched the movie (something that I don’t like doing if I feel like the book is worth my reading time). So while searching the shelves of English titles, I saw this little thing.

It’s a pretty small book, with a nice cover. I decided to take it home with me without reading the summary (as I often do). It took me a few months to get to it, but when I did, I read it in one sitting. After all, it’s a tiny book and the beginning of the story is very well developed. Like I said, I didn’t read the back cover for the summary, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The unnamed protagonist is a street-smart and, to some degree, a book-smart person that has no shame whatsoever in conning people for a living. That already makes a great plot start. As the book progresses and we start to visit the Mansion where most of the story takes place… Well… Things start to fall apart.

And that ending was very disappointing, specially for the speed it was delivered. Maybe if we had more built up between the two possible versions of what really happened in the Mansion, the dubious ending could’ve been amazing, but as it is written… Pfff. Totally eye-rolling.

Do I recommend it? Maybe, but just because of the beginning. Many nice lessons about character development there. Other than that, no.