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Come Closer
Demonic possession or psychic break? One of Esquire's Top 50 horror novels of all time delves deep into the terrifying consequences of losing control.
"A perfect horror novel."—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
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.
This new edition of the cult classic features a brand new post-script by the author and an "Are You Possessed?" questionnaire.
"A perfect horror novel."—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
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.
This new edition of the cult classic features a brand new post-script by the author and an "Are You Possessed?" questionnaire.
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Community Reviews
could've been creepier but felt like there was too much being spelled out for me when it would've been better to show and not explain so much. i did like the bleak ending though.
I'm going to finish bc it's not bad, it's quite good. Just a few words let me know the author's interactions with anyone not white is limited. Describing skin tone as nutmeg (it's better than chocolate but it's the only brownish color description she uses) , so far twice, for clearly the only poc in the story, one of those interactions is violent (the subconscious thought that little black girls are disposable is in the subtext). When white authors use the word dreadlocks as a description for a white woman's slightly messy or MATTED (there is a difference) hair is very telling for me.
3.25/5
Come Closer follows Samantha, an architect, whose life slowly unravels as a dark presence starts taking over her. This book is pretty straight forward, lineal and exactly what it promises. The main character's slow descent into madness is believably described and interesting to follow. Th prose is very tight too, it doesn't digress or ramble. I feel like this would have been a disaster if it had been any longer.
Personally I didn't find this scary or even spooky. I do read a lot of horror on the regular so I think that's probably why this didn't hit me the way it seems to have affected others. I found the plot and the escalation predictable. I will say that I am thankful that the author didn't play around at the end with a twisty reveal or anything like that. Fast read, I recommend it to anyone who wants to read something quick but well done.
We could devote our lives to making sense of the odd, the inexplicable, the coincidental. But most of us don't, and I didn't either.
Come Closer follows Samantha, an architect, whose life slowly unravels as a dark presence starts taking over her. This book is pretty straight forward, lineal and exactly what it promises. The main character's slow descent into madness is believably described and interesting to follow. Th prose is very tight too, it doesn't digress or ramble. I feel like this would have been a disaster if it had been any longer.
Personally I didn't find this scary or even spooky. I do read a lot of horror on the regular so I think that's probably why this didn't hit me the way it seems to have affected others. I found the plot and the escalation predictable. I will say that I am thankful that the author didn't play around at the end with a twisty reveal or anything like that. Fast read, I recommend it to anyone who wants to read something quick but well done.
This was a super quick read with many unresolved questions. I’m not sure if that’s why I had issues with this book, but I wouldn’t put it on my reading shelf again.
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