Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, Dan Chaon's Best of 2017 pick in Publishers Weekly, one of Vol. 1 Brooklyn's Best Books of 2017, a Bomb Magazine ""Looking Back on 2017- Literature"" Pick, and one of Vulture's 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017. Jac Jemc's The Grip of It is a chilling literary horror novel about a young couple haunted by their newly purchased home Touring their prospective suburban home, Julie and James are stopped by a noise. Deep and vibrating, like throat singing. Ancient, husky, and rasping, but underwater. ""That's just the house settling, "" the real estate agent assures them with a smile. He is wrong. The move-prompted by James's penchant for gambling and his general inability to keep his impulses in check-is quick and seamless, both Julie and James are happy to start afresh. But this house, which sits between a lake and a forest, has its own plans for the unsuspecting couple. As Julie and James try to establish a sense of normalcy, the home and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. The framework- claustrophobic, riddled with hidden rooms within rooms-becomes unrecognizable, decaying before their eyes. Stains are animated on the wall-contracting, expanding-and map themselves onto Julie's body in the form of painful, grisly bruises.