“That’s just the house settling,” the real estate agent assures them with a smile. Ancient, husky, and rasping, but underwater. Touring their prospective suburban home, Julie and James are stopped by a noise. While THE GRIP OF IT won't work for horror readers looking for their next twisted and bloody read, it's a worthy addition to the library of any reader interested in literary fiction with a chilling twist. Rather, THE GRIP OF IT is a literary blend of horror tropes with domestic suspense - a smart and subtle examination of the secrets and tensions that can haunt an ordinary couple.

THE GRIP OF IT is an excellent choice for hesitant horror readers-this is not your typical horror read: there are no blood and guts, and very few moments of in-your-face shock. 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.It's very rare for me to read a horror novel, but when I first heard of Jac Jemc's THE GRIP OF IT, I knew this was a horror read I had to try for myself. 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. Stains are animated on the wall-contracting, expanding-and map themselves onto Julie's body in the form of painful, grisly bruises. The framework- claustrophobic, riddled with hidden rooms within rooms-becomes unrecognizable, decaying before their eyes.

As Julie and James try to establish a sense of normalcy, the home and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. But this house, which sits between a lake and a forest, has its own plans for the unsuspecting couple. 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.

'That's just the house settling,' the real estate agent assures them with a smile.

Jac Jemc's The Grip of It is a chilling literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home 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. Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, Dan Chaon's Best of 2017 pick in Publishers Weekly, one of Vol.

Jac jemc the grip of it