Come Closer ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Horror

US Publication: 2006

Print: 194 pages

Audio: 3 hours 40 minutes

Confetti Rating: 4 stars

REVIEW:

What scares you?

I’ve been reflecting on that question more and more as the true horror books I’ve read lately have failed to give me any reason to keep the lights on. After some analysis of my past Halloween reading lists, I’ve realized the following applies for me:

Not scary: Haunted houses, monsters, ghosts and witches

Scary: Demonic possession and creepy kids

Since I’ve read the “classics” with those tropes, the interwebs were helpful in directing me to this little 2006 gem by Sara Gran. In Come Closer, readers are taken into the first-person perspective of Amanda, a young woman who slowly begins to realize she’s possessed by a demon. While she’s aware of it - she knows who the demon is and has been able to research her origins back to a biblical story - there’s nothing she can do to rid herself of her sinister companion.

At a mere 194 pages, this novella packed the paranormal - and paranoia - punch I’d been looking for. Scary, indeed.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

If everything in Amanda's life is so perfect, then why the mood swings, the obscene thoughts, the urge to harm the people she loves? What are those tapping sounds in the walls? And who's that woman following her? The mystery behind what's happening to Amanda in Come Closer is so frightening that it "ought to carry a warning to... readers."