Her uniform swayed loosely on her, like a bell…

Reading time: Less than 1 minute

I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors from Gillian Flynn…

I don’t typically read mysteries or thrillers (call my habit a character flaw if you like) but I read two while travelling in Italy this summer. The same author — Gillian Flynn — wrote both of them.

On the advice of a friend, I’d read Flynn’s Gone Girl several years ago and found it an engaging beach read. I can’t give quite the same positive review for the two I read this year: Dark Places and Sharp Objects. (I think I liked Dark Places slightly better but neither novel really stayed with me. They were both a bit generic.)

That said, Flynn had occasional bursts of figurative language that impressed me. Here it is, with my apologies for not being able to identify which is from what book…

  • The white starched nursing dress she wore as her uniform swayed loosely on her, like a bell.
  • My mother turned to me with her head cocked, the diamond on her wedding finger flashing in my eyes like an SOS.
  • When we got home, she’d trail off to her room like an unfinished sentence.
  • “I feel very sad about those girls,” I said, but it sounded artificial, like a beauty contestant pledging world peace.
  • Richard blew a hollow toot with his beer bottle, a mating call to a passing tugboat
  • I could feel the night hanging on me like a soft, damp bedgown.
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