Gillian Schieber Flynn (born February 24, 1971) is an American crime/thriller novelist. Her published works so far include:
Novels:
- Sharp Objects (2006)
- Dark Places (2009)
- Gone Girl (2012)
Short Stories:
- "The Grownup" (2014)
Associated Tropes:
- Anti-Hero: All of her protagonists are deeply flawed, morally ambiguous and at times, unlikable characters.
- Many characters have shades of the Byronic Hero, or at least, they would like to think they do.
- Children Are Innocent: Flynn's novels have a habit of subverting this trope; the majority of kids in her books show some troubling unchildlike behavior.
- Thirteen year old Amma Crellin in Sharp Objects murders three teenage girls and uses their teeth to repair the ivory floorboards in her dollhouse.
- Miles in "The Grownup" is a creepy, off-putting teen that has some violent moodswings, lies about his stepmother and manipulates the narrator to do his bidding. She's so creeped out by him that she uses the dresser to block the door to her room.
- Ben Day and Diondra Wertzner in Dark Places. Ben drinks, kills a cow to impress his friends, smokes dope, has a child with Diondra at the age of fifteen and ultimately lands in jail. Diondra on the other hand remorselessly kills a nine year old girl and many years later attempts to do the same to Libby.
- Country Matters: Used at least once in all of her works.
- Dysfunction Junction: Family dysfunction and Parental Abuse are major themes in her writing.
- Females Are More Innocent: Well-known for subverting this idea.
- Flyover Country: All three novels take place at least partially in rural Missouri.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Several of Flynn's characters are writers; from Gone Girl, both Nick and Amy initially write for magazines while Amy's parents are successful children's authors. Camille Preaker from Sharp Objects is a journalist.
- Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: She is a big fan of this trope:
- Kristi in Dark Places is a more sympathetic version. She was an extremely cute, gossipy, peak-80s tween when she tried to seduce Ben (who was fifteen) and then falsely accused him of sexual abuse. This starts a chain of events ending with his family dead and him getting sent to prison. When Libby catches up with her, she's a stripper with a terrible breast enlargement who, while she admits to lying about Ben, still expects Libby to feel sorry for her.
- Gone Girl: Amy has always played the role of a specific form of Girly Girl for her boyfriends and even her friends. Desi in particular is a huge fan of her always dressing in pastel shades and she falsely accuses both Nick and her own father of brutal physical and sexual abuse to get sympathy and attention from him. Nick's version of Amy is cooler, more hipster, and "modern" but still girly in a way that appeals to Nick (hairless, sexy).
- Amma and Adora in Sharp Objects are both generation-specific versions. Evil Matriarch Adora is The Münchausen and enjoys making all her daughters sick and being viewed as the perfect mother even if it meant killing her youngest, Marion. Amma, on the other hand, is viewed as an innocent little girl while murdering rivals for her mother's and Camille's attention and putting their teeth in her Creepy Dollhouse.
- Shared Universe: At least two of her novels exist in the same universe. For example, the murders from Sharp Objects are mentioned at the Killer Convention in Dark Places.
