The Grip of It - Jac Jemc

n nFinalist 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. n nJac Jemc's The Grip of It is a chilling literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home n nTouring 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. n nThe 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. n nLike 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.n