A review by gabberjaws
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

 You know that one episode of Friends, where Joey has to write a recommendation letter to an adoption agency on Monica and Chandler's behalf, and how, on his first attempt, he uses the thesaurus on every single word? Yeah, that's what this book felt like.

Listen. I like flowery, lyrical prose as much as the next person, but my god. Did every single line have to be this deep, mishmash of utter nonsense that barely conveyed what this author was trying to say? I went into this book expecting a profound, horror-tinged character study; what I got was a migraine.

“I take a deep breath, and I swear I can feel blood pick up oxygen and carry it through me, delivering questions that blink rapidly behind my eyes like closed captions.”

This book was filled with little nuggets of gold like this and,,, what the fuck is ANY of this supposed to mean!?

The worst part is that I got the distinct impression of smugness from the writing. Like it thought it was clever and intensely profound with its verbosity, and that I, the reader, should be in awe at what I was reading. No, friend. I just want to understand.

If the bad writing wasn't bad enough, I was also struggling to see the point of this book. If it was just a metaphor of a rocky marriage, and finding the strength and love to work through your problems and come out the other end still together, then... it was okay,??? I guess??? But if there was something more it was trying to say, I genuinely don’t see it.

There was so much build up and so many horror elements seemingly tossed in there for the heck of it, that it ended up muddying the waters to the point that even the marriage commentary was nearly drowned out. And if the study of this rocky marriage was the only point to this book, then it was entirely too long and not at all worth it. The horror had no pay-off and the commentary was about as substantial as onion skin.