By Leslie Lindsay 

The Edgar Award–winning short story from the author of

Gone Girl, Dark Places, and Sharp Objects, published for the first time as a stand-alone book

What a concise and wacky little story THE GROWNUP is, but what more would we expect from Gillian Flynn?!

Topping out at just over 60 pages, this is not a full-fledged novel and that may be okay, depending on what you’re in the mood for. Personally, I would have loved a full-length novel (ha, and there’s a little pun in that if you chose to read the story), but THE GROWNUP is a full short story that was originally written for J.R.R. Tolkien by Flynn (as mentioned her acknowledgements section) and published as a short story within an anthology in 2014.

Be aware that, like Flynn’s earlier stories, this one is a bit vulgar at times and definitely edgy, but if you like haunted houses, ghost-y things, and have an interest in the occult, THE GROWNUP is right. up. your. alley.

Of course the ending is trade-mark Flynn with a strange little twist that will have you paging through earlier sections to see if you can spot a little set-up.

Why you’ll want to read THE GROWNUP: 

• To get your Gillian Flynn fix. Last fall, we were gifted with the fabulously creepy movie version of her runaway bestseller, GONE GIRL, but since then…no book.
• To get your old house fix. Yep, it was the main reason I reached for this one.
• And the ghostly tale sort of goes intrinsically with the whole old-house thing. 
• A fun little foray into the whacked out minds of Flynn’s charaters…can you tell who’s being honest, or are we all deceptively crafty at the heart?
• A perfect stocking stuffer for just about anyone who enjoys short stories. This one is so small, it fits in the the palm of your hand. And yeah, if you read the book, you’ll understand.

For more information, please see Gillian Flynn’s website

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GILLIAN FLYNN is the author of the runaway hit Gone Girl, an international sensation that has spent more than one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. Her work has been published in forty-one languages. Flynn’s previous novels, Dark Places and Dagger Award winner Sharp Objects, are also New York Times bestsellers. A former writer and critic for Entertainment Weekly, she lives in Chicago with her husband and children.

[Special thanks to A. Rosner at Crown Publishing]