The Grip of It

A chilling literary horror novel, Jac Jemc's THE GRIP OF IT tells the story Julia and James, a young couple haunted by their new home. The move - prompted by James's penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check - is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But the house, which sits between lake and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple...

The architecture becomes unrecognisable, decaying before their eyes. Stains contract and expand, mapping themselves onto Julie's body in the form of bruises; mould taints the water that James pours from the sink. As the couple search for the source of their mutual torment, they become mired in the history of their peculiar neighbours and the mysterious previous residents of the house.

Written in eerie, powerful prose, THE GRIP OF IT is an enthralling and psychologically intense novel that deals in questions of home: how we make it and how it in turn makes us, inhabiting the bodies and the relationships we cherish.