Author: Gillian Flynn
Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Release Date: November 3rd, 2015
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 64
Format: Print
Where to buy: Amazon
A canny young woman is struggling 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.
First off, let me tell you I LOVE GILLIAN FLYNN. I think she is an amazing writer and her stories always keep me on the edge of my seat. This short story is everything you'd expect from a Gillian Flynn novel, but I'd be lying if I said I loved it. It fell a little short for me in expectations, and at the end I was left going 'WTF?' - and not in a good way. I honestly just didn't understand the plot a whole lot; I mean as far as intelligence goes I guess it made sense, but I just didn't "get it."
The beginning of the story started out great and I was definitely intrigued right from the get-go, I mean, come on...a chick who is the master of giving hand jobs? Way to go. As with all of Flynn's novels, there's lots of twists and turns and then some drama, then some more crazy shit happens, and this story definitely had that in the first 2/3 of the book, which was absolutely wonderful. Definitely a great read up until that point. But after that, it felt like there was a lot of useless information just kind of thrown in there to make up the rest of the 64 pages. There weren't any more twists and turns, no more drama. The mystery had basically ended. I like books that make you think, books that you actually have to figure out. I don't want you to go into detail and explain to me what just happened, and that's basically what the ending of this book was. She pretty much explained the entire story to me, so there was no thinking involved on my end.
Long story short, I was greatly disappointed by this book, and to be completely honest I'm upset that I wasted a credit to buy it on Paperback Swap. I love you Gillian, I really do...but this...this wasn't good.
