Having read all of Gillian Flynn's novels, I was not disappointed with this short story. Creepy doesn't begin to describe the teenager who lives with his parents in the old Victorian house that may or may not be haunted, but the kid is for sure. The book is written in first person, by a woman who's retiring from giving 'hand-jobs' because of carpal tunnel syndrome. "I quit because when you give 23,546 hands jobs over a three-year period, carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real thing." page 7
I love how the heroine describes her customers. "They tend to be tense, nervous married men, men with midlevel, mostly powerless jobs. I'm just giving my assessment. They want you attractive but not slutty. For instance, in my real life, I wear glasses, but I don't when I'm in back because it's distracting--they think you're going to pull a Sexy Librarian act on them, and it makes them tense while they wait for the first chords of a ZZ Top song and then they don't hear stand they get embarrassed for thinking that you were going to do the Sexy Librarian and the whole thing takes longer than anyone wants." page 12-13 How can you not love that line?
For such a short book, I swear that 5% of Flynn's wonderful-witty prose is highlighted. I'm not sure I ever learned what the main character's name was and she was such a strong, well-drawn character that I didn't even notice until I started writing this review. Born to a mother who was so lazy she couldn't even be bothered to get a job, but she did teach her daughter to beg. Here's a great line about how the heroine got into the job giving hand-jobs. "What I did was purely transactional: You made someone feel good and they gave you money. So you can see why the whole hand-job thing felt like a natural career progression." page 11
With the whole carpal tunnel syndrome going on, our heroine had to find something new to do in order to support herself. Luckily the building she worked in had two career paths; hand jobs and fortune telling. Both meant to make the person feel like there was hope in the world. Our heroine becomes a psychic and that's when she meets Susan Burke and her creepy house, and creepier stepson.
With all of her street sense, our heroine set to work clearing the energy of the house, and it's there when things start to go really wrong, or really right, depending on your point of view. The plot goes on from there, surprising and amusing in a sick way, until the end, which is really a great beginning which I hope Flynn continues with in a full length novel. I really loved the characters. No one does sociopath like Flynn. A fun hour of ready by an excellent author. Worth the money because you'll probably read it twice.
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I Love This Novella!
𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕: 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.I just love Gillian Flynn.. This is a short story, so I don't really want to say too much. But Flynn's ability to write characters and put them in high stress situations continues to make her one of my favorite authors.
Top reviews from other countries
Fernanda
Amei!
Reviewed in Brazil on August 11, 2021
Fernanda
Reviewed in Brazil on August 11, 2021
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Georgina
A great quick read perhaps for a rainy/lazy day
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2020