| Title | : | The Grip of It |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0374536910 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780374536916 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 276 |
| Publication | : | First published August 1, 2017 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Horror (2017) |
Julie and James settle into a house in a small town outside the city where they met. The move—prompted by James’s penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check—is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But this house, which sits between ocean and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple. As Julie and James try to settle into their home and their relationship, the house and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. The architecture—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 bruises; mold spores taint the water that James pours from the sink. Together the couple embark on a panicked search for the source of their mutual torment, a journey that mires them in the history of their peculiar neighbors and the mysterious residents who lived in the house before Julia and James.
Written in creepy, potent prose, The Grip of It is an enthralling, psychologically intense novel that deals in questions of home: how we make it and how it in turn makes us, mapping itself onto bodies and the relationships we cherish.
The Grip of It Reviews
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hehehe
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Posted at Heradas Review
This short novel thoroughly creeped me the hell out. It’s been a few years since I’ve read anything that maintains this level of unease throughout. It’s not intended to be outright scary, instead it maintains an eerie tone (think VanderMeer’s
Annihilation) and punctuates it with some genuine goosebump moments that snuck up on me. The narrative plays the POV characters’ relationship woes (something we can relate to) against a supernatural backdrop (something we cannot). Juxtaposing the relatable with the unrelatable works so well here, and serves to pull the unrelatable closer until it feels solid, foundational, and within the realm of possibility.
This narrative tactic also got me heavily invested in the characters and their troubled relationship; rooting for them to find a way out of their situation together; to come out the other side a more entwined, singular team. They’re two people who in a misguided attempt to navigate up out of a downwardly spiraling situation, inadvertently ensnare themselves into another, accelerated, more deadly one. I love the way that these events escalated, and built on one another. The way that they dealt with that escalation also felt incredibly like actual human behavior.
The story found its way to a terrific resolution. I imagine it’s difficult to end a haunted house novel in a way that is satisfying to the reader, but doesn’t undercut the creepy tone -- that built it in the first place -- with too much clarity. Do you completely explain the haunting and lose all the mystery, or do you leave it entirely unknown by ending in an ambiguous manner? The finale of The Grip of It finds that perfect middle point between these two extremes, balancing resolution/irresolution to both fulfill my deeply rooted desire for closure as a reader, and keep the eeriness fully at play.
We’ve all got that old lizard brain resting below our rational one, nearly all that it understands is fear, and it love a good poking. Logically, I know none of these supernatural events are real or even remotely possible, but my lizard brain doesn’t care about logic, it likes being afraid. It wallows in the macabre, and thrives in the unknown terrors that might lurk in the shadows residing just at the periphery of my vision. I mostly read this right before going to bed, and I found myself double checking silhouettes in my bedroom as I lay there, imagining how the strange sensation of seeing my wife’s face, but not recognizing her, would feel; finding patterns where none exist, and missing patterns previously obvious. The whole affair put me on edge.
The prose is clean, the chapters short, and the pacing tight. You could even read it in a single sitting if you wanted, and it’s engaging enough that the decision to do so might end up outside your control. It might just happen, you looking at the clock afterward and wondering where the time disappeared to. -
“We can lose ourselves behind a trapdoor, whether in our mind or in the house.”
A couple, Julie and James, move into a new home as a means of getting away from James’ gambling problems. Pretty quickly, the couple are tormented by strange occurrences - stains appear on the walls, bruises form on Julie’s body and they keep finding hidden spaces within the walls of their home. Together they try to investigate what is happening as more and more strain is placed on their relationship.
If I had to use one word to describe this book, it would be: MEH. I was pretty excited for a haunted house tale, and at no point did I feel anything other than ambivalence. It wasn’t creepy, it wasn’t scary… it was just monotonous. The characters themselves didn’t help – boring, bland, unlikeable.
Short chapters are a great way of flying through a book, but in this instance, the short chapters were just too short? The narration went back and forth, with the story being told from both Julie and James’ perspective – and usually, I dig this, but combine it with the extremely short chapters and I just felt like I was constantly being taken out of the story. I couldn’t get absorbed and therefore could not care less about what was going on or what happened to these characters.
I often give off about how I don’t like ambiguity when I read a book – and that’s an unfair generalisation, because in some cases it can be done right. In this book… it is not. There’s TOO MUCH ambiguity and too many questions left unanswered and it just left me extremely frustrated.
It just wasn’t for me, I guess! And in this situation I was actually thankful for those ridiculously short chapters so that I could just get it over and done with!! 2.5 stars out of 5! Rounded down for goodreads because it doesn’t deserve a 3 from me… SAVAGE. -
If you are thinking about picking up this book, please do yourself the favor of listening to the audio version! The narrators are beyond excellent, and I feel they played a huge part in the success I felt while reading this story.
Readers looking for violent, graphic, and disturbing horror won't be the right target audience for this book, but THE GRIP OF IT will be a huge hit to those looking for a dark and chilling form of literary horror and slow building suspense. What really put this in 4 star territory for me was the interest the author extracted from me within the main couple's everyday drama and exchanges. It takes a bit for the unsettling bits to pop in, so this was a nice touch while waiting for the horror to build.
I'm not even 100% sure what I read and exactly what the ending implied, but I got the gist and I know I liked it. This ambiguous sense of horror worked well for me, and the idea that the strange happenings were mirroring the destruction of James and Julie's relationship was pretty genius. It does take awhile to get there, and it was slow going for the first 30%, but once I hit that point I could hardly put this down! Even though this is being pushed as horror, I really feel it was more of a psychological suspense that featured a haunting. Again, fans of hard core horror likely won't appreciate this unless looking for a change of pace, but I think fans of domestic thrillers wanting a unique approach will really love this! -
Oof. The Grip of It is a literary horror novel that slights the "horror" with its aim toward "literary." The novel is told in short bursts of "he said, she said" that do little to differentiate between one another stylistically to the point that the reader must continually check to see if the current narrator is the husband or the wife that is speaking in the ever-monotone present tense. The Grip of It wants to be a serious work that presents bits of philosophical poetry as human insight into the void that looms within every committed relationship. I have no issue with the previous being the thrust of a metaphor, one that involves a couple trying to salvage their marriage by buying a house that happens to be haunted. What does irk is that the author rushes through the first fifty pages with a grocery list of horror tropes to torment our protagonists, before transitioning to repetitive passages of inaction and uncertainty. Following that, the last fifty pages of an already short work are a chore as the narrative abandons any interest in those aforementioned horror tropes and both characters pad their chapters with ceaseless streams of waffle about being and not being the person their partner married. Even though I have been married to neither a layabout with a tacked-on gambling problem nor a narcissistic perfectionist with a penchant for unnatural dialogue, that does not mean it should be uninteresting to read about both.
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This book is so spooky!
Perfect pick for these days. Julie and James are married and looking to start fresh in a new home. In the past they've had some marital woes because of James' gambling problems.
They find what seems like the perfect house close to the ocean and cannot believe their luck when their offer goes through very quickly. Once they start settling in strange things start to happen, they also start getting lost in the hidden rooms within the house.
The novel is narrated from the alternating points of view of Julie and James. It is set in a small town and fast-paced. The novel has beautiful writing and is dark, engaging and haunting.
Overall I enjoyed the novel and recommend it to all thrill and chill seekers.
Thanks to the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this publication in exchange for an honest review. -
A spooky read, The Grip of It, has many vile images that stay with you and cling under your skin just like the unexplained bruises that the young wife keeps getting. A couple buy their first house hoping for a new start out of the city and its temptations which for the husband means compulsive gambling. It's not quite what they expected, the house has its own baggage which tends to take over its inhabitants. Written in a stream of consciousness style that starts to get annoying after a while, The Grip of It, never has a resolution. They don't learn the complete story of the house, only bits and pieces, and even these are never coherent. Worth a read for the startling imagery, such as the wife digging in the earth and the earth starts pulling her in. It is scary, but it is also discursive, confusing, and unsatisfying.
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try-hard
A person who puts a large amount of effort into achieving a certain image, or counter-image, to the point where it is obviously contrived. Rather than achieving an image through genuine personality, the try-hard consciously attempts to fit a certain style through deliberate imitation, forced style, or scripted behavior. That is to say, he/she is trying hard to create an image.
"A person"... or in this case, a book. -
I loved the premise of this book and borrowed the audio from library because it sounded so good. The Grip of it delivered!
This audio follows Julie and James as they buy a new home to begin their fresh start. Almost immediately, creepy things begin to occur. Their new neighbor only adds to the uncomfortable atmosphere, not to mention the stories of the townspeople. When mysterious bruises begin to appear on Julie's body, they both have to admit there is some kind of problem, but how are they going to deal with it? You'll have to read this book to find out.
I loved how the chapters alternated between the viewpoints of James and Julie. This worked very well on audio with two narrators. I also enjoyed the slow burn of the stories and how the characters reacted to each occurrence, though at one point, I will admit to just yelling at my phone, "it's time for you to move out!!" Surprisingly, I liked the ending too, which is where almost all haunted house stories fall apart for me. I thought it believable and reasonable. What more could I ask? Oh, I know! More Jac Jemc, please!
Highly recommended, but beware, this is quiet, creeping, chilling horror. Not in your face, blood everywhere type of horror and to that I say, Bravo! -
"The inability to trust ourselves is the most menacing danger."
Husband and wife, James and Julie, move into an old house with only one neighbor, out in the middle of nowhere. It's an odd house, filled with secret panels, odd designs to the rooms and a strange noise that can constantly be heard, even if it is easy to tone out. That said, they need an escape from the city and the mistakes of their past. Unfortunately, mistakes can haunt you as much as ghosts, and given their new house, they'll be living with both problems.
The Grip of It is a very literary take on a classic horror story. The book is written in first person, but with chapters alternating between James and Julie. While it typically alternates chapter to chapter, this is not always the case which may cause momentary confusion, but it's not really difficult to tell which narrator is which. The prose is very poetic at times, which is wonderful for some descriptions, but makes some of the dialogue a bit off at times (normally I'd say that was fitting given a horror novel, but here it feels a bit awkward).
So what exactly is this about? A haunted house story? A metaphor for marriage issues? A list of potential things to worry about when you buy your first house? All of the above? *Shrug*
This isn't a very long review, but I had to give the book more consideration between reading it and posting here than usual. I had to consider how I actually felt about it, as this is very much the sort of book you need to digest a bit before you react to it. Any snap judgement could very well change upon really thinking about what we're told and specifically what we are not told .
In the end, do I recommend this book? I genuinely still do not know. I didn't fully "believe" the story being told, but at no point did I ever feel like giving up on the book. I enjoyed it for the most part, even if it wasn't overall and enjoyable experience (I know that doesn't really make sense, but if you give the book a shot, you may get that as well). Overall I would say that if you like your horror on the literary side, a little experimental and like questions far more than answers, you could certainly do worse. 3/5 stars. -
"Well
You and I both know that the house is haunted
And you and I both know that the ghost is me
You used to catch me in your bed-sheets just a-rattling your chains
Well back then baby, it didn’t seem so strange."--Shaky Graves/Dearly Departed
I don't typically do song lyrics with my book reviews (seen that, over it *wink*) but this was just so damn appropriate that I had to.
So here we have a very moody, atmospheric setting for our story: A Haunted House.
And we have a typical, slightly dysfunctional married couple moving into it.
And then all that ensues is just a reader's delight.
The narration is perfect. Jemc eases us right into to the intricacies of the couple's relationship with a very natural dual narrative--His & Hers if you will.
The whole thing reads like a movie--pictures in your mind as the story played out. And lately, I've been a fan of this trend of doing short-punchy chapters. Yes! Short chapters are GREAT!!!
I loved the way the creepy stuff just kind of crept up on me. There were little mysteries to figure out, little guesses I had going, theories. It was fun to see what was going to happen next to our unsuspecting protagonists.
The last 50 pages or so was pretty wild, leading up to just sort of an OK ending to be honest. I felt like I wanted more--but it was fine. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much! I'll be looking for more books from this author in the future! -
Effective horror is incredibly difficult to write. How do you sustain the suspense, let the terror build? Jac Jemc can't seem to with The Grip of It. This is a classic haunted house story, with some decent ideas -- -- but I feel like the author runs out of steam a third of the way in. Some explanations or narrative excuses -- why would you stay in a house that is so obviously destroying your psyche?! -- arrive at least 50 pages too late, while others -- in particular, why would you be tempted to buy a house with stained walls, creepy crawlspaces, and an omnipresent humming sound in the first place? -- arrive never. The dual POVs become more and more crazed as the book progresses, but not in a bone-chilling
Shirley Jackson way; the madness never struck me as convincing (nor could I frequently tell the voices of each half of the married couple apart). Finally, rather than provide any sort of explanation, Jemc delivers about forty, vaguely, sort of. Take your pick!!!
No, thank you; this book had already lost its hold on me 150 pages back. -
Let me just say up front that a lot of people on goodreads seem to have enjoyed this book...I'm just not one of them. I found this book to be an absolute chore, and I regret that I took the time to finish it. So with that out of the way, lets dive into a bit more detail.
'The Grip of It' is as horror story that follows two malfunctioning robots, called Julie and James, who move to a house in a small town to escape James's gambling problems. So the main characters aren't actually robots; they might as well be. They have the personalities of automatons programmed to poorly fake superficial emotions until their circuits start breaking down and they behave even LESS coherently. Whew -Ok, this is going to be even harder then I thought...keep it together, Matt.
The story is written from the first person perspective, which I think is a good choice for horror as you get to experience events at a more intimate level. Additionally, the books chapters alternate between following Julie and James, meaning we are able to witness the thoughts of both characters as they deal with the events of the story.
Unfortunately both of these techniques fail this book.
There is something about the way this book is written that somehow had the effect of making me feel detached from the story; but it's hard to lock in on the problem. Something is just...off. The writing has a very stilted quality too it, while also having the most overdone way of describing events. It was as if the characters had written statements to the police after the events, and that's what we are reading. Except the characters are also poets, and desperately want to show that they have beautiful and creative ways of viewing the world - but ends up just making them more tiresome. It's hard to describe, so I'm just going to put a small bit of non-spoiler text here to give you an idea:
'I recognise the bright terror coursing through me. Every minute renders me closer to pitch-darkness. I want to break the seal into the next day. I want to forget what is happening now. I know it isn't that easy. I want to believe time has already passed. I want to reason my way through it. I am overcome. The tide is fast approaching. I let it have me. The brackish water reaches over me. Under the waves, without my breath, I find a tinted version of myself. I can't tell where my skin stops. I can't tell where the night begins.'
This isn't going well. I didn't set out to write a slam piece, but I can't stop myself. I'm just going to power through some more quick things and be done with it.
The characters say 'We did...' a lot. Enough so that it can take me a few sentences of each new chapter to remember which character's perspective I am actually following now, which kinda ruins the immersion. Mostly the chapters alternate characters - except when they don't for some reason. Also: Show, don't tell. Telling us the characters talk about their concerns is not as engaging as actually having them talk about them.
The characters are dull, and behave in surprisingly muted fashion to what should be seriously worrying events. James is a problem gambler with low impulse control, a love of photography, and an It job. Julie is...the wife. That's all I can remember about her. Maybe they should have gone to a counsellor to teach them how to communicate better, rather than buying a clearly haunted house.
I have read the whole book and I still don't know what was actually going on. The story throws some disconnected, creepy ideas at you but can't be bothered actually giving you much depth or history to the events. Don't get me wrong - Horror can work best when it DOESN'T explain everything - but it should still give you something. Some sort of context or history. Some sort of payoff. It throws out vague details here and there, but they feel just as distantly connected as the various creepy elements.
I didn't FEEL anything for the story or the characters, and while I can objectively recognise many of the events as 'creepy', I didn't actually feel creeped out. Maybe because everything else about the book felt so off that the horror elements just got lost in the noise.
I am sorry this review has ended up being so harsh. It turns out I had a lot to unpack. I just...there was just...nothing positive for me in it at all. But take my opinions with a grain of salt, as clearly a lot of people quite enjoyed it. In fact that is probably the biggest disappointment that I have regarding this whole thing: I didn't get to experience the awesome, creepy, horror story that so many other people apparently did. -
3 Stars
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I was really unsure what to expect when I started this and I honestly think that's the best way to go in to reading this book. It allowed me to be drawn into the story in a way that made me feel like I was PART of the story.
It takes a lot for me to be creeped out enough to want to sleep with the lights on. This book had me not just contemplating sleeping with the lights on but also just foregoing sleep altogether. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck in the most delightful way and I couldn't have enjoyed it more!
I really enjoyed the way it was written as well. I'm always a fan of short chapters and dual perspectives and this book has both down to absolute perfection! It's written in a way that makes it almost impossible to put down and it's easy to justify reading just ONE more chapter when they're so short!
I really could not have enjoyed this book more! It captured my attention from the start and got under my skin in a way that a horror novel hasn't managed to do in a long time. You know it's a keeper when you want to put it down because you know you'll have trouble sleeping if you don't, but it's just so damn good that you CAN'T put it down! -
This book has some genuinely creepy moments, and I thought the beginning was very strong and intriguing, but then over time I started to lose interest - and I feel like a lot of the ending went way over my head. But I still want to give this 3 stars because of the creepy scenes that were written very well, I was pretty spooked listening to this audiobook! 👀
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I don't think so...
A curious little haunted house story about a husband and wife that move into a new house and strange things begin to happen.
If this book was a horror film it would be one of those new, contemporary horror films that has absolutely no musical composition to it whatsoever. Just the dry straight facts. Let me tell you why...
This book is written in a first-person style jumping back and forth between the husband and wife's POV and is also written in present tense. You can imagine how monotonous it is to read texts written in such a manner.
Another problem I had with the way this book is written is that the chapters are so terribly short (there is literally 92 chapters in a book of only 273 pages) and each chapter alternates between the husband and wife so that just as you are getting into one story it pulls you back out and throws you into a different story from a different point of view. It's very difficult to emerge yourself into the story when it is written this way.
The premise and the story of the book were just fine. The ending sucked if I do say so myself.
The rest of the issues that I had with the book go into personal issues that I have with the characters being flawed. Like why the hell would they buy a house with water stains and weird secret passages? Why the hell would they stay in a house that is making the wife sick and the husband crazy? They did not decide to leave the house until way too far in the book. I understand finances and all that but when something like this starts to happen you have to wonder. And as I stated before the ending sucked more because it made me absolutely hate the two characters.
With everything stated above I don't think I'm going to be recommending this book. I just have too many issues with it. -
Sigh.
Another disappointing spooky read . . .
This one had real promise as a haunted house chiller, with lines like:
At night, on the way to the bathroom, I don't turn the hall light on. I trace my hand along the wall. I touch something wet and soft.
And:
The lights in the bedroom are off. In the soft shine of the moon through the window, I startle at what looks like a person opposite me, only to realize it's a figure drawn on the wall. I flip my bedside light on, not sure if I hope to wake James or not. The outline droops with liquid, watery and pink, and I wonder, Paint? Blood?
But . . .
Nothing ever comes of any of it!
The chapters alternate between husband and wife narrating, and there are some tense moments where each suspects the other of either causing the disturbances, OR being crazy, but, again . . . there's no real conflict, and certainly no denouement. As an examination of a troubled marriage, I suppose this works; as a horror novel, it's a real letdown. -
It took me one day to read THE GRIP OF IT by Jac Jemc. The chapters alternate between the point of views of husband and wife, James and Julie, as they describe their experience moving into a new house, in a new town. There are some trust issues between the couple because of James’ gambling problem which adds to the paranoia in this story. I was captivated throughout the book up until the ending. I am not a huge fan of neatly wrapped endings - I prefer books that make you think. And although this ending makes you think, it may or may not be for all of the right reasons. It was vague and a little all over the place. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed reading it, but I couldn’t make any of my theories stick. Maybe that means there is a sequel? I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a creepy, fun read!
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5/5 stars!!
Just a quick FYI before we get started... I started Jac Jemc's The Grip of It yesterday morning before work, continued reading it on my lunch break, on my commute home on the subway, before getting ready to meet up with friends for a pre-Halloween night out, left my friends early so I could come home and read this, and then stayed up until 2:30 am to finish this. If that doesn't mean that this book deserves 5 stars, then I don't know what else to tell you, but I digress. Let's get started on this review, shall we?
Jac Jemc's The Grip of It is intoxicating and enchanting from the very beginning. The story revolves around a couple from the city, James and Julie, moving to the countryside to escape the drama surrounding them and to get a fresh start. James suffers from an addiction to gambling and the couple relocates to try and rid themselves of this horrible dilemma. Insert typical introduction to all haunted house stories: couple finds a cheap house that is way too big for them but provides them rustic charm and latches onto their egos and dreams, couple purchases the house and decides to not do any research into why the massive house is so cheap, couple moves in immediately. Once they move in, they realize that things aren't quite what it seems - shadows lurking around the house, random horrific growls coming from who knows where, little hidden rooms leading to areas of the house that have no value for the typical person, and a neighbor who won't keep his eyes off of them. This is just the start for the naive couple, but what is wrong here and what has James and Julie done to invoke these nightmarish plagues against them?
If you haven't read the first part of my review, I just wanted to reiterate how epic and awesome this story was for me. The Grip of It is not your typical horror story that has in-your-face gore and fright at every page. This story is a psychological thriller, mixed with suspense and a domestic thriller component all blended together with minor horror features. The slow build-up to the story is engaging and left me begging for more. I love this story - and now time for a nap because I'm exhausted. :) -
Read my full review here:
http://crimebythebook.com/blog/2017/8...
I couldn't put this read down! It's a smart and surreal literary horror novel that incorporates themes readers might expect to find in a domestic thriller. This won't be the right choice if you're looking for bloody/gory horror, but it'll perfectly suit literary fiction readers looking for something chilling. -
While the writing was interesting and I was intrigued by the cause of the horrifying incidents around the house, I was disappointed with the last quarter of the book. While there were a handful of answers dropped amongst the convoluted narrative it was left too open ended for me to be happy with the overall story.
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Goes through the haunted house conventions rather fast (finding a lone grave after purchasing a silly-cheap abode, hearing children in the forest, seriously second guessing your spouse, actual physical bruises...). Which was a definite plus. It's been awhile since a good ghost haunted house story emerged somewhere, in some medium... & it shall still be a while I suppose. I really wish it had been better...
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See this review and so much other good horror stuff at
Ladies of Horror Fiction.
3 1/2 Stars
I’m not going to sugar coat things. This book was work and it was not a quick read. Not by a long shot. The chapters were super short so you would think the pages would fly, right? No. They absolutely do not fly. The writing style was literary, I knew that going in, and the language was lovely and often gutting in its honesty but what I didn’t anticipate were the alternating POV’s of the married couple who are haunted by their new house (or were they?). Every single time a new chapter began with the other’s POV it would throw me out of the groove of the story and take me several moments to get back into it. And since many of the chapters were only 2 – 3 pages long there was a lot of mental jostling going on here. Perhaps you won’t have this issue and this much of a struggle but I’d be lying if I didn’t cop to it.
With that said, the book was a treasure trove of eerie atmosphere and emotional turmoil. The writing was truly striking and the crushing and stifling dread closing in on the couple? Phew, I’m still feeling the remnants of those claustrophobic, paranoid feelings days later. Their struggle, their worry, and their confusion? That stuff was so amazingly well done. I LOVE that sort of writing thus I was determined to see this book through to the very end. Were they going mad together? Was the house haunted? Or was it something more sinister and grounded in the real world? And what was up with the weirdo neighbor? I’m not telling you any of these things because I am not 100% sure of the answers even after finishing it. I had to get this book back to the library so I’ll have to do a reread on audio someday to see if I can find all of my answers to all of my pesky questions.
So, do I think you should read it? Perhaps and perhaps not. What I do recommend is maybe grabbing yourself a sample and reading the first 50 -75 pages and see how it works for you personally. The Grip of It isn’t a book that will appeal to everyone but, damn, that writing was lush and I am sucker for lush writing especially when it’s creepy! I have zero regrets.
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I have read two great haunted house novels this year. The Grip of It is one of them. (Without consulting my reviews, can anyone tell me what the other is? If you get it right, there isn’t a prize . . . except my undying love and admiration.) A dazzling, poetic, and challenging work, this is a literary masterpiece that deserves to sit on the shelves with the classics.
James and Julian have stumbled across a large, beautiful house for an excellent price — and they take it. The house gives them the change their marriage needs. But this house isn’t right. Impossible rooms and corners and corridors exist . . . and there are ghosts in the trees . . . and just who is that strange old neighbor who keeps staring out his windows at the couple?
Jac Jemc deals in dread. This is a novel of quiet, mounting terror — the scares don’t come from onscreen horror, but the anticipation of the horror. Jemc keeps her cards close to her chest and knows how to dole out just the right amount for maximum effect. And for me, as a reader, that works best. I don’t like to be shown. I don’t like for the author to hold my hand. I have a working and vivid imagination, and the scares it can conjure up are more effective than anything Jemc could have written. You see, this novel doesn’t give answers. If you like your haunted house novels to end with everything wrapped up nicely, you’d better move along. The Grip of It is a puzzle, and I suspect I will get even more out of it upon rereading.
A grim and despairing novels of haunts and a dissolving marriage, this thing pushed all my buttons. If you like to be teased and challenged by your scary fiction, give this a go. As for me, I will be checking out this author’s past novels as soon as possible. -
Quite a unique reading experience and it is very impressive to write such an unnerving book about a staple such as a haunted house. This is, of course, rather to do with the prose rather than the story (which is good too!). The shifting narrative (between the couple that are the protagonists of the story) works beautifully and the first half of the book took my breath away and filled me with a dread and a need to learn more. Towards the end, I did feel a little exhausted and started just wishing for a conclusion and that's why I've knocked a star off. My good friend
Edward Lorn introduced me to this one after we hit a bump in the road which was Straub's
Floating Dragon. Thanks a million, Edward, this was a really good one! -
Wow!! Not really sure what I just read, but I liked it!! 😂
This is essentially the story of a married couple that move into a new house in hopes of helping their marital problems. However, the house might be haunted? Maybe? I honestly still don’t know what really happened. This is definitely a more subtle, nuanced read as opposed to being outright terrifying or spooky (although it was plenty creepy). Idk, but I really liked it!! Jac Jemc’s writing seemed very experimental and just straight up bizarre at times, and I really enjoyed trying to figure out what was happening (although again, I don’t really know 😂) -
There are children in the trees. Whispering. Watching. Waiting.
Shadows. Drawings. Sounds.
The sound shapes itself, rough and wet before me. I smell the breath, sour and ripe at once.
I really dug this one. I liked how the chapters alternated between James and Julie. Their voices got confused in my head and it took a paragraph or two to figure it out who was “speaking”. It should have thrown me off and been a hot mess. It wasn’t. As a matter of fact, the alternating perspective and growing tension between James and Julie really ended up adding to the disorientation of the story. There was an increasingly sinister vibe that became more palpable as events played out. My only real peeve was that it ended too abruptly.
A very well written, bleak and haunting tale of, well…a haunting. An easy 4+ Stars and maybe even more. Highly Recommended.
The stains of the past leaching into the present.
Growing. Devouring. Cancerous. -
THE GRIP OF IT, is the first novel I have read by author Jac Jemc. I honestly went into this book without any idea of what to expect. This turned out to be a great thing, as this book was nothing that I would have anticipated!
We start with a couple, Julie and James, that are purchasing their first home, hoping to get a fresh start on their lives after a series of "gambling incidents" that James was involved in. They find a large, strangely affordable home in a small town--this was perhaps the only factor that gave off a premonition that "something was not all right here".
This novel is what I would consider a strong psychological-horror, and yet I couldn't begin to compare it with anything else I've read. Jac Jemc has a very unique voice, and the prose in this book was simply all-consuming. The chapters alternated in regard to the point of view of both Julie and James. Not only does this give us an alternative viewpoint for each episode, but the readers can assimilate different interpretations of the same events.
". . . Maybe an idea insists itself more easily than an action . . . "
The atmosphere in this book is really what takes center stage. The type of haunting here is more about what is "unstated" than in what is actually articulated. The abstract ideas are much more unsettling, and serve to quickly get under your skin and unnerve you.
"What's worse? To be confronted with an obvious horror, or to be haunted by a never-ending premonition of what's ahead?"
This is a "haunted house" story unlike any other. Three are no obvious answers or entities involved. What our characters have to go on are their mental changes and perceptions that they can no longer trust.
". . . The inability to trust ourselves is the most menacing danger . . . "
Jac Jemc redefines the term of a "haunting" here. What is it that causes a place to feel . . . wrong? Is it an outside factor, or do the things we, ourselves, feel and do "bleed into" a dwelling, leaving a taint that cannot be removed?
". . . What role were we playing? The ghosts or the haunted?"
This is a novel that demands your full concentration to really appreciate all that is behind it.
". . . How do you explain that your wife somehow got lost in your own house? . . . "
Taken singularly, incidents could be brushed aside, but as a whole, we enter into an oppressive, claustrophobic situation from which the main characters feel helpless to extradite themselves from. After all, how do you escape what you can't fully understand?
". . . It feels like something in the space between James and me . . . like an electricity that's been turned on . . . something that buzzes at its highest frequency when we're both home, together . . ."
Jac Jemc has written a fantastically original novel, with beautiful phrasing and an overall writing style that leaves the reader yearning for more.
Recommended! -
I don't keep ARCs so I'll be giving it away to anyone in the US who wants it.
**
The official blurb for this book calls it "a literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home," which is definitely the case, but it is not at all your standard haunted house fare, and that's something everyone contemplating reading this novel should know right up front. Trust me on this one. In fact, I have to give the author major ingenuity points here -- not so much for the haunted house horror story per se, but for what is truly original here, and what is in my opinion the thing that makes this book very much worth reading.
In a very big way, the author manages to mirror the couple's search to try to get to the root of what's ailing this house (what's actually haunting it) with what's actually ailing/haunting this couple -- complete with "undercurrents," gaps, walls, and as the male half of this couple, James, reveals, the "buried, fetid stories" which have "bubbled to the surface." As his wife Julie notes at one point,
"This house is sapping us, pulling out our cores"
and as the novel progresses, the reader comes to understand that the "grip" the house has come to have on this couple is far more menacing than either one of them could have ever realized.
Readers who go into this novel expecting only the standard haunted house fare may be somewhat disappointed, so that's why I said what I did at the beginning of this post. My only real issue is that sometimes what the author has her characters thinking or saying is more authorial than real-world speak, which becomes a bit overblown sometimes, but hey -- that's a minor thing compared with what she's done here, which is actually quite good.
for just a tiny peek at plot (absolutely zero spoilers), there's more here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2017...
