A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that’s replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she’s doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.
The new voice in Amanda’s head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. Is she possessed by a demon, or is she simply insane?
COME CLOSER
Sara Gran
It’s quiet.
The way the possessed become that way. And Sara Grans’s short horror novel, COME CLOSER, is quieter than most.
Perhaps that’s why it’s one of my favorites to revisit year after year.
It’s short but extremely effective. In a book as short as this every word matters, every sentence is a supporting structure, every paragraph is intentional.
My copy of the book is around 200 pages. A mass-market paperback that still has a lot of white space for its size. The print is larger than most. It’s easy to read and it can be done in one sitting, perhaps an afternoon. But its effects will last much longer than books twice its size.
Let’s talk about the book.
COME CLOSER stars Amanda. An interesting character from the jump. She is both someone you like and something else entirely. She is married and her life is such that a dance with the devil is the most interesting thing to happen to her lately.
We follow as she slowly goes from tightly wound to unraveled short time. The pace is both deceivingly slow and extremely fast. It’s over before you know you’re enjoying it.
Which only leaves you wanting more.
I love to read this book at the beginning of fall. It always sets the tone for reading spooky books. This year I listened to it in audiobook format and found it to be quite a treat.
It’s a quick read that’s very impactful. If you haven’t read Sara Gran yet, now is your chance.
COME CLOSER…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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