Is The Grip of It Worth Reading?
by Jac Jemc
Ada’s Score
Jac Jemc's debut novel follows a couple who flee to a small town to escape a gambling addiction and find their new house is slowly consuming them — literally and psychologically. Told in alternating perspectives that gradually drift further apart, the novel uses the haunted house as a lens for examining how couples lose each other, how bodies betray their owners, and how denial becomes its own kind of architecture. Jemc writes in precise, charged prose that refuses easy horror conventions, building dread through ambiguity rather than revelation. It is one of the most formally accomplished horror novels of the last decade.
“Slow, suffocating, extraordinary. Jemc makes the horror feel like it's happening to your body, not a character's. Haunts you long after.”
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Slow, suffocating, extraordinary. Jemc makes the horror feel like it's happening to your body, not a character's. Haunts you long after.”
Book Details
- Publisher
- FSG Originals
- Published
- January 1, 2017
- Pages
- 288
- Language
- English
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Affiliate linksISBN: 9780374536916
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Ada’s Score Breakdown
4.3
This breakdown reflects how Ada weighs the book’s strengths and flaws, not aggregated reader data.
Common Questions About The Grip of It
- Is The Grip of It worth reading?
- Slow, suffocating, extraordinary. Jemc makes the horror feel like it's happening to your body, not a character's. Haunts you long after. Ada rates it 4.3 out of 5.
- How many pages is The Grip of It?
- The Grip of It is 288 pages long — around 5–6 hours at an average reading pace.
