The Grip of It

I love haunted house stories, and this one was genuinely creepy. It is a first-person account of the growing paranoia of a couple looking to escape their own demons, with both unable to communicate the weird things happening in their house.

I love how it subverted your usual ghost story elements. Instead of leaky pipes, weird spaces appear in the walls. Instead of creepy moans, bruises appear out of nowhere. Is it psychosis? Sickness? Or is something otherworldly in the house? I don’t know. The unsettling horror is ambiguity amplified by a failure of communication, and that’s why I find… show more.

The Grip of It is among the best-haunted house novels out there. A young couple flees their city life—as well as some potentially life-ruining gambling habits. Julie and James are hopeful, as new homeowners often are, until things begin to go wrong. Odd sounds. Inexplicable spots of decay. Hidden rooms. The novel has all the best markers of a haunted house story while also piling on a sense of unique and unending claustrophobia and suspense that I don’t think I’ve read at quite this level before. It is a brilliant journey into the interior of the human mind. I loved… show more.