I enjoy Gillian Flynn, though not quite as much as most people, I think. I like her premises, I like her style, but I always feel that she chases one too many white rabbits. I must be one of the only people who liked Gone Girl as a movie better than the book. I felt like the movie tightened everything up, did away with so many overreaching elements that Flynn throws in-I feel like she is trying so hard to make it twist, she ends up tying herself in a knot.
This is true of her other books also. I have actually read Sharp Objects twice because I didn't remember that I had read it and I promised April I would read it with her. The concept is better than the execution, this one is clearly a first novel. It is fairly easy to guess the twists, and it goes on too long. Dark Places is my favorite, as promised it goes to incredibly dark places, but Flynn is afraid to stay there and the ending is a muddled up mess. The rest of the book, though, is excellent.
And today I read The Grownup.
I found it by chance at the library last week. It is a very short story. Flynn does slightly better with short stories, I think, because even though she still wants a twist every few sentences, there are by nature fewer to be had. She has to be concise. This was a nice, easy read if you are in the mood for some suspense and only have, you know, a half hour while your youngest daughter is at dance class to get a book read.
So that is what I read today. I haven't quite decided what to read next, I have collected such a stack that I may have to play eeny, meeny, miny, mo in the next few minutes.
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