Book Review 2017-009
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
2017 by FSG, 276 pages
(I received a copy of this from the publisher—both in ARC and final forms and as what is probably a necessary side note—was involved in the publication of two earlier titles by Jac)
Jac Jemc’s second novel, The Grip of It, has been described as creepy (and not just by my own father), and it is, but it is so much more than that. Jemc has used the idea of a haunted house to take a closer look at relationships, both spousal and otherwise, among other things. The usage of the horror genre helps really push the story and reader forward as there’s more of an edge of your seat, what happens next, aspect to the story line. With that in mind I won’t be hitting many of the actual plot points too hard as I think the reader deserves to stumble through the novel the same way that I did which led to such enjoyment. I also need to quickly give credit to the cover designer--hard to see on the above photo--but there are little scary faces drawn in white all over the house and cover--and the writing seems perfect for a haunted house story.
The prologue is a quick hitting two pages of maybes that sets the mood perfectly:
Maybe the neighborhood children ring the door bell. Maybe it’s some faulty wiring. Maybe that feint chiming is something else entirely—a thing we will only recognize later. Maybe something as simple as a doorbell deserves our dread occasionally. Maybe we’re foolish to stay calm as long as we do.
The opening chapter involves a real estate agent showing them the house—it’s full of secret rooms and compartments and seems like it’s full of more than enough space for this young couple of Julie and James. He points out frequently that the noises they hear is simply the house settling and while they find it odd, they love the space and extras and buy the house. The chapter is told from Julie’s point of view. The second chapter jumps back a few months and is in James’ voice allows for the reasons behind their move—from the city in which they met to this outskirted suburb. It’s a move that will cause them to need to find new jobs even, and not just move from the city, not just buy a house. James gambled away his money—not their next egg, nor any of Julie’s money, as he was quick to point out—and they decided that a move like this would help him get over his impulses. And while it seems that the decision to do so shows that Julie believes in James and his ability to start over, the chapter ends with the duo finding a stain and determining they need to bring somebody in to look at it—and when James says he’ll take care of it, Julie replies “But you won’t. It’s better if we acknowledge that now.” And in two short chapters (9 pages total between them) the reader is given the situation—young couple moves to a house full of noise—the reason—his gambling problem—and the fact that things are not quite as cut and dried between the young couple as they’d like them to be.
That’s where Jemc shines in my opinion—she uses the paranoia that naturally occurs in a haunted house story to really dig into her characters. We have Julie and James and their relationship. Then she gives us their primary relationships outside of the house—Julie’s is with an old friend and new co-worker, Connie. James finds himself talking about the house and his neighborhood with bartenders and checkout ladies. Both James and Julie find themselves believing they hear and see what they claim to hear and see. However, they both also question themselves, and each other, regularly. Julie begins to have bruises—large and winding bruises—all over her body (to the point that like a true friend, Connie questions early on about how James treats her), stains appear in the house and grow and shrink at will, and they both encounter times in their backyard where they are positive that the tree line at the far end is either closer or farther away than they believed it to be.
Spinning back and forth, with both James and Julie narrating sections, and having the sections being very focused (there are 92 chapters and a prologue in 271 pages), makes the book a very quick read. And throughout, even as James and Julie occasionally contradict each other—or is it more that they’ve altered their own understanding as things continue to get stranger—they also seem to really desire for everything to be normal. When each set of parents visits they find the house, or the elderly neighbor, to be off putting (at the mildest) but the young couple tries their best to explain everything away. That they moved more than partially to try to fix something in their relationship helps explain some of this and was a stroke of genius on Jemc’s part. It doesn’t allow the reader to simply believe that maybe the duo believes what they are saying. Maybe they do, but maybe it’s a furthering of their desire to have everything working out between them and their new lives.
Jemc’s debut, My Only Wife, used some mystery tropes to look into a spousal relationship; this time around feels similar but with the horror element. In both cases she has written fantastic novels and utilized those tropes perfectly. They never feel gimmicky yet help the reader jump right into the story. Once Jemc has your attention she never lets go right on up to the excellent ending.
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