It’s a truly chilling little story of a character’s descent into madness, her blackouts leaving the reader to fill in some of the pieces themselves, but showing enough of the gruesome aftermath to know that whatever she did, it ain’t gonna win her any good citizen awards.Ī few months back, i read Freshwater, which is (in part) about possession manifesting as mental disorder/insanity, and i thought emezi did a fantastic job of writing that headspace-making it accessible and sympathetic to the reader. It’s a story of a woman’s disintegration as she is invaded by a demonic presence that insinuates itself into her body and mind, slowly and irrevocably supplanting her free will, causing her to engage in increasingly self-destructive behaviors, blowing up her life as it sinks its claws ever-deeper into her mind jeopardizing her marriage, her job, her reputation, and her list of “never have i evers,” leading her helplessly down a violent path…as much as she can recall of it. This is short and anything but sweet, somehow managing to pack a whole lot of creepiness into just under 200 pages. That I felt so much in such a short time is testament to Gran and her ability to squeeze everything out of every word.HEY, QUARANTINERS! i wrote another readalong/booklist thing for f(r)iction! this book is on it: The Call Is Coming From Inside You But I also wanted her to find the joy her demon was bringing her. I felt for Amanda and her need to ‘fix’ herself. It would make sense, and I can completely sympathise. In 2003, there was an expectation that we would ‘lean in’ and to not do so was somehow to fail (has a lot really changed?)Īnd so maybe the voice Amanda is hearing is her own – telling her that there is more to life than staying home and waiting for her husband to turn up late for the perfectly cooked meal she prepared (after a hard day at work, of course – because the chores were still her responsibility). This is especially true when you think about when it was written, before mobiles were common, and long before anyone had even thought of the phrase #metoo. And even then, there is a question about whether what is happening is real or whether it is really about the societal ‘horror’ when a young woman doesn’t play by the rules. Yes, there was a bit of gore but the horror here was more psychological, which works for me. Thankfully this wasn’t the type of horror I try to avoid. I asked for it for Christmas without looking at it in too much detail, only to realise it was a horror when I took off the wrapping paper! After romance, horror is probably my least favourite genre. I love Sara Gran’s Claire DeWitt series but this one had passed me by until late last year.
My thoughts on Come CloserĬome Closer is a re-release of a novella published in 2003.
There must be a reasonable explanation for all this. It wasn’t like everything went wrong all at once.
There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on.
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