The Grip of It
Julie and James buy a rambling, improbably cheap house in a small lakeside town in the Midwest, hoping that the move will help them outrun the fallout from James's gambling problem and the fracture it opened in their marriage. Almost immediately things begin to feel wrong. Stains bloom on the walls, the house hums at night, Julie grows bruises she cannot account for, and a silent old man in the next yard stares into their windows as though he is waiting for something. The novel alternates between Julie and James in short, mounting chapters, each of them increasingly convinced that the other is hiding something, and slowly turning against each other as the house takes hold. Jac Jemc's novel is a taut, literary haunted-house story about a marriage that was already in trouble.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Grip of It
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Julie and James buy a cheap, sprawling house in a small Midwestern town to escape his gambling problem and the noise of the city. Soon there is a low hum in the walls, bruises on Julie that she cannot explain, and rooms inside the house that the listing never mentioned.
Yes. The Grip of It is a 2017 literary horror novel by Jac Jemc about a couple whose new house begins to change around them. It is widely cited as a defining quiet-haunted-house novel of recent years.
Yes. The Grip of It builds dread through subtle reality slippage rather than gore or jump scares. Most readers find it atmospheric rather than terrifying, but the unease is sustained throughout.
The Grip of It was written by Jac Jemc, published in 2017 by FSG Originals.
The Grip of It is 153 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Grip of It takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
The Grip of It is a standalone novel by Jac Jemc, not part of a series.
The Grip of It is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.