The Grip of It

By Jac Jemc

Book Overview

Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award Jac Jemc's The Grip of It is a chilling literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home

Touring their prospective suburban home, Julie and James are stopped by a noise. Deep and vibrating, like throat singing. Ancient, husky, and rasping, but underwater. "That's just the house settling," the real estate agent assures them with a smile. He is wrong.

The move--prompted by James's penchant for gambling and his general inability to keep his impulses in check--is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to start afresh. But this house, which sits between a lake and a forest, has its own plans for the unsuspecting couple. As Julie and James try to establish a sense of normalcy, the home and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. The framework-- claustrophobic, riddled with hidden rooms within rooms--becomes unrecognizable, decaying before their eyes. Stains are animated on the wall--contracting, expanding--and map themselves onto Julie's body in the form of painful, grisly bruises.

Like the house that torments the troubled married couple living within its walls, The Grip of It oozes with palpable terror and skin-prickling dread. Its architect, Jac Jemc, meticulously traces Julie and James's unsettling journey through the depths of their new home as they fight to free themselves from its crushing grip.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374536910
• ISBN13: 9780374536916
• Release Date: August 2017
• Publisher: Fsg Originals
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Didn't make a strong impression in my memory

In writing this review, I had to go and find the book and flip through it so I could remember what the hell it was about. And that's not a good sign. For novel I can't recommend it and I won't leave a bad review because honestly I couldn't remember liking it or not liking it

keep waiting for it to get good

Sure there were some "creepy" part but the rest of it was just one big shoulder shrug.