Come Closer

This is the creepiest book I have read in years. It crawled under my skin and stayed there.

A brisk, fast-moving read about a normal young woman who is inhabited in both a subtle and sinister way by a demon. This is a true page-turner. I read it on a weekend, and it spooked me in a way a book has not done in a long time.

It also packs a sudden punch of sadness at the end—truly a scary, well-done novel. Read if you dare! 

She’s either possessed by a particularly vicious spirit or just plain insane. Either way, I’ve never been able to forget the terrible things she does, although I read this so long ago, I can’t remember her name. It’s not gory; it’s eerie, and most of the horror is suggested rather than shown, meaning our own imaginations contribute to the impact. Ghost story or psychological horror, you decide.

A demon-possession novel told from the point of view of the possessed, Gran’s novel shows the slow unraveling of the main character’s personality as a demon takes control of her actions. What starts small—mysterious sounds in the happy couple’s apartment, a stolen lipstick in her bag—spirals to a bloody end. For me, the main character’s familiarity with the demon is part of what makes this novel so effective.