Synopsis
There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on.
Strange noises in the apartment.
Impulsive behaviour.
Intense dreams.
It wasn’t like everything went wrong all at once.
Shoplifting.
Fighting.
Blackouts.
There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.
Review
Possession stories, in my experience, are rarely from the position of the possessed. These possessions are a lot more… overt. Think multiple voices from one body, contorted limbs, memorable insults slung from the mouths of pre-pubescent teens.
Come Closer by Sara Gran explores the slow, methodical breakdown of a person’s psyche, and the measured slide into the dark that comes with it. It’s the story of Amanada, an architect who finds herself behaving in strange ways. Weird, unexplained noises; out of character outbursts; blanks in her memory. It may be a silly thing to say, but, Come Closer feels like a much more believable take on what a possession would feel like.
This more grounded approach lends itself well to the books use of the Unreliable Narrator. Unreliable Narrator is a narrative device that, in my opinion, must be done very well otherwise the events of the story feel like a cop out, something that can be explained with a hand wave. Come Closer sinks itself deeply into this by rarely ever presenting the events as anything other than what they seem to be, namely, a demonic possession of a woman with an established life, loves, and career. Is this real, or is this just the mental break of woman in a life she doesn’t love?
Sara Gran writes with a very sparse tone, giving you just enough of Amanda’s thoughts, actions, and feelings, to paint a picture of her and how these strange occurrences are affecting her. It’s often what is not said – particularly as the story begins to build and the stakes rise and the possession goes from odd knocking noises to explicit harm – that makes this truly creepy. We’re unsure, other than few mentions, of exactly what the passage of time is between scenes and chapters, which gives the story a sense of disorientation that adds to Amanda’s own loss of bodily autonomy. It’s fantastically creepy and existential to witness!
In short, Come Closer is a shot-in-the-arm quick burst of dread horror. Spine-tingling in its implication, devastating in its execution. This is a realistic possession horror that will have you questioning if that knocking in your walls is really just the old rusty pipes…
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