Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, Dan Chaon's
Best of 2017 pick in Publishers Weekly, one of Vol. 1 Brooklyn's
Best Books of 2017, a BOMB Magazine "Looking Back on 2017: Literature"
Pick, and one of Vulture's 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017.
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.
