The Grip of It: A Novel

I’ve never been very interested in haunted house novels. There are the big ones, like Hell House by Matheson and Haunting of Hill House by Jackson, and I’ve read those. But in general, haunted houses in literature always leave me wanting something more. They always seem like an author’s trick to show the problems in a human relationship via difficulties presented in the setting, and it leaves me cold.

This novel, while well written and filled with solid, frightening imagery, does little to change my mind. I couldn’t help but think about the story The Yellow Wallpaper while reading it, asking the same questions I asked when I first read that story in high school.

Is this about how these characters are responding to a haunting? Or is it about these characters responding to each other and themselves? Is there even a haunting?

It’s clear something is going on. The mental faculties of the main couple (and we hear from both of them in first person as Jemc has her protagonists take turns narrating) certainly slip during the telling. There are physical manifestations of a haunting, such as mysterious bruises, wall drawings, doppelgängers, and townsfolk who know more than they let on. But in the end, you can’t be sure that it all wasn’t just built within the minds of the couple.

So I’m left with a haunted house that isn’t as much about a malevolent spirit world as it is about interpersonal human relationships, and that is definitely something I’ve seen before. No surprises here, but if that’s your jam, this one is well written.