I read Come Closer by Sara Gran in one day. Besides children’s books, I haven’t read a book in one day since high school. Come Closer was so completely petrifying that if I didn’t read the book in one day, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I had to know how this book ended so I could at least comfort myself with the thought that I didn’t have to go back to it the next day.
Come Closer is about a newlywed, Amanda, with an amazing job. She’s living the jet-set life in the city with a great job and a new apartment. Everything is wonderful! However (and this is a big however), Amanda and her husband start to hear noises in their beautiful new apartment. One day, the noises disappear, but the thing making those noises hasn’t; it simply found a new home.
I think what was so petrifying about this book is that the haunting moves slowly. Amanda seems like a regular person who is having these odd things happen to her. Granted, these odd things climax into really big things, which you would think would make a normal person do a little more than what Amanda did. Amanda’s voice is so clear in this book that I found myself completely entrenched in what she was going through.
Another aspect of this book that makes it so scary is that the violence and the horror that occurs is never fully described. Gran leaves the reader to imagine what may or may not have happened during one of Amanda’s many blackouts. This technique draws the reader in and, thus, closer to the haunting in the book.
I’ve read a lot of horror in my day and nothing scared me more than a demon/ghost story. I can deal with cell phones that turns you into a zombie killing machine, a deadly virus that turns you a vampire, or even a guy who likes to murder little girls, but a demon that takes over a grown woman and the woman kind of doesn’t mind? Come Closer is a bit much for me to take; I’m still scared and I read this book a month ago.
Referrer: things mean a lot
Book Source: Hennepin Country Library, Eden Prairie, MN
3 Comments
An everyday occurrence? I hope not!
I really don’t like watching horror movies and I haven’t read any but this one is something! And the title too is really.. eerie.
I starred this just in case.
Wow, I am not a big scary story person but this seems well written enough and goreless enough to capture my attention. I might check it out. Thanks for the review! :O)
Lex Cut – I’m really picky about the horror movies that I watch or ones that I read…the plot needs to make some sense. This book was just creepy because the haunting is gradual.
Hi Pam – Another reviewer (thingsmeanalot.com) said the book was a lot like Turn of the Screw. I’d have to agree It’s creepy without being over the top.