Publisher’s Thoughts – Come Closer – Sara Gran:
A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that’s replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off-kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she’s doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.
The new voice in Amanda’s head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. A book on demon possession suggests that the figure on the shore could be the demon Naamah, known to scholars of the Kabbalah as the second wife of Adam, who stole into his dreams and tricked him into fathering her child. Whatever the case, as the violence of her erratic behavior increases, Amanda knows that she must act to put her life right, or see it destroyed.
Staff Thoughts:
Come Closer is one of those books that hooked me quickly and I could not put it down. The story starts off in an almost-lighthearted manner, with some touches of humor and weirdness, especially in the beginning. However, much like its antagonist, it is insidious and sucks you in before you even realize it has.
The tale begins slowly and is told through the eyes of the main character, Amanda, as she recounts how things began to go wrong, with some unexplainable incidents and weird coincidences that she struggles to explain away at first. Things begin to spiral out of control as time goes on, and Amanda watches her life start to fall apart before her eyes, helpless to stop it. The pace quickens and the reader is along for the ride, hurtling toward what can only be a catastrophe for Amanda.
This is one of the truly scariest books I have read, as the author emphasizes first the denial, then the panic, then the sheer loneliness and helplessness that Amanda feels as she ironically grows more powerful due to the demon inhabiting her. Author Sara Gran skillfully puts us in Amanda’s shoes, feeling what she feels and seeing what she sees.
The novel builds rapidly toward a climax of isolation, loss of control, and madness that is as captivating as it is terrifying – it is impossible to look away. I heartily recommend Come Closer for horror fans, especially those who enjoy tales of demons or possession. This is a book that will stick with you long after you have finished it.