Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-10% $15.29$15.29
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$13.71$13.71
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Burlington MA- Used Book Superstore -new books too
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Come Closer Paperback – September 26, 2023
Purchase options and add-ons
"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.
- Print length168 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHell's Hundred
- Publication dateSeptember 26, 2023
- Dimensions5.51 x 0.45 x 8.23 inches
- ISBN-101641295244
- ISBN-13978-1641295246
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
Review
NPR 100 Favorite Horror Stories
Esquire 50 Best Horror Books of All Time
Men's Health 53 Best Horror Novels of All Time
Book Riot 50 Scariest Books of All Time
“Sara Gran's Come Closer will have you questioning Amanda's reality and mind along with your own, and it will scare the pants off you. It is a perfect horror novel.”
—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
“What begins as a sly fable about frustrated desire evolves into a genuinely scary novel about possession and insanity. Hypnotic, disturbing, and written with such unerring confidence you believe every word, Come Closer is one of the most precise and graceful pieces of fiction I've read in a long time.”
—Bret Easton Ellis
“Stunning.”
―Los Angeles Review of Books
“A dark, seductive cocktail of a thriller, with a splash of black humour and a twist of horror. Come Closer combines the taut suspense of Patricia Highsmith and the acerbic, surreal wit of Ottessa Moshfegh.”
—Francine Toon, author of Pine
“To me, Sara Gran did for Demonic possession what Henry James did for the Ghost story when she wrote Come Closer. I don’t know of a better novel that deals with the subject, making it not just a classic but THE contemporary classic of the genre.”
—David Slade, director of Hannibal and Thirty Days of Night
“I read Come Closer on the train, in a snowstorm, on a cold December night. It was the right atmosphere for this perfectly noirish tale of madness and love. Author Sara Gran writes with scalpel-like clarity, expertly blending tones to create a new kind of psychological thriller. I loved this book. Days after finishing it, it has not left my mind.”
—George Pelecanos, author of Right as Rain
“‘What we think is impossible happens all the time.’ So claims the beguiling narrator of Come Closer, and after reading this spare and menacing tale, the reader has to agree. Sara Gran has created a sly, satisfying (fast!) novel of one young woman possessed not only by a demon but also by her own secret desires.”
—Stewart O’Nan, author of Ocean State
“I could not stop until I reached the very last line.”
—Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita
“Deeply creepy.”
—The Irish Times (A Book of the Year)
“I have been haunted by Come Closer since it first came out more than 15 years ago, and often recommend it to horror fans, so it is great to see it back in print. A short, wickedly sharp tale, elegantly constructed and genuinely disturbing, this take on demonic possession as experienced by a young, happily married, successful female architect in New York still feels contemporary and relevant today. But beware: it is truly nightmarish, and could take up residence in your head.”
—The Guardian
“Harpies, doppelgangers, possessive spirits: once confined to horror writing, these supernatural entities prowl the pages of literary fiction with increasing confidence. In the past couple of years, novelists such as Daisy Johnson, Megan Hunter and Helen Phillips have harnessed them to probe female passions and frustrations, but Sara Gran beat them to it in 2003. Newly reissued, her lean, seductively mean novel Come Closer [is] magnetically disturbing.”
―The Observer
“Ideal for an evening’s reading, with a kick that will stay with the reader for days afterward.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Short, sharp and deliciously, remorselessly nasty; I read it in one compulsive gulp while trying to ignore the slow chills creeping up and down my spine.”
—Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days
“Sara Gran has written an intelligent horror story, a literary creepshow that works its magic subtly and well. It’s a marvel of restraint and taste, and still it worms its way under your skin and stays there.”
—Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life
“Sara Gran’s Come Closer ought to carry a warning to readers. It’s impossible to begin this intense, clever, beautifully written novel without turning every page. A wonderful accomplishment.”
—Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field
“Come Closer is sharp and strange and, best of all, at the moment of truth it doesn’t flinch from its own mad logic.”
—Sam Lipsyte, author of No One Left to Come Looking for You
“Come Closer is riveting, alarming, and deceptively complex. Sara Gran will make you terrified of the little voice lurking inside your own mind that sometimes says, Go ahead, do it.”
—Madeline Stevens, author of Devotion
“The Yellow Wallpaper meets Rosemary’s Baby in a slim, wonderfully eerie novel.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Polished and unsettling."
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“It gave us the creeps.”
—Arizona Republic
“About as twisted as they come.”
—CrimeReads
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
IN JANUARY I HAD A proposal due to my boss, Leon Fields, on a new project. We were renovating a clothing store in a strip mall outside the city. Nothing tremendous. I finished the proposal on a Friday morning and dropped it on his desk with a cheerful little note—“Let me know what you think!”—while he was in a meeting with a new client in the conference room. Later that morning Leon threw open his office door with
a bang.
“Amanda!” he called. “Come in here.”
I rushed to his office. He picked up a handful of papers off his desk and stared at me, his flabby face white with anger.
“What the hell is this?”
“I don’t know.” It looked like my proposal—same heading, same format. My hands shook. I couldn’t imagine what was wrong. Leon handed me the papers and I read the first line: Leon Fields is a cocksucking faggot.
“What is this?” I asked Leon.
He stared at me. “You tell me. You just dropped it on my desk.”
My head spun. “What are you talking about? I put the proposal on your desk, not this, the proposal for the new job.”
I sifted through the papers on his desk for the proposal I had dropped off. “What is this, a joke?”
“Amanda,” he said. “Three people said they saw you go to the printer, print this out, and bring it to my desk.”
I felt like I had stepped into a bad dream. There was no logic, no reason anymore.
“Wait,” I said to Leon. I ran back to my desk, printed out the proposal, checked it, and brought it back to Leon’s office. He had calmed down a little and was sitting in his big leather chair.
I handed it to him. “This is it. This is exactly what I put on your desk this morning.”
He looked over the papers and then looked back up at me. “Then where did that come from?” He looked back at the fake proposal on the desk.
“How would I know?” I said. “Let me see it again.”
I read the second line: Leon Fields eats shit and likes it.
“Disgusting,” I said. “I don’t know. Someone playing a trick on you, I guess. Someone thinks it’s funny.”
“Or playing a trick on you,” he said. “Someone replaced your proposal with this. I’m sorry, I thought—” he looked around the office, embarrassed. In the three years I had
worked for him I had never heard Leon Fields apologize to anyone, ever.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “What were you supposed to think?”
We looked at each other.
“I’ll look over the proposal,” he said. “I’ll get back to you soon.”
I left his office and went back to my own desk. I hadn’t written the fake proposal, but I wished I knew who did. Because it was true; Leon Fields was a cocksucking faggot, and he did eat shit, and I had always suspected that he liked it very much.
2
THAT EVENING I WAS telling my husband, Ed, about the little mystery at work when we heard the tapping for the first time. We were sitting at the dinner table, just finishing a meal of take-out Vietnamese.
Tap-tap.
We looked at each other.
“Did you hear that?”
“I think so.”
Again: tap-tap. It came in twos or fours, never just one—tap-tap—and the sound had a drag on it, almost a scratching behind it, like claws on a wood floor.
First Ed stood up, then me. At first, the sound seemed to be coming from the kitchen.
So we walked to the kitchen and bent down to listen under the base of the refrigerator and look under the stove, but then it seemed to be coming from the bathroom. In the bathroom we checked under the sink and behind the shower curtain, and then we determined it was coming from the bedroom. So we walked to the bedroom, and then to the living room, and then back to the kitchen again. After we toured the apartment we gave up. It was the pipes, we decided, something to do with the water flow or the heating system. Or maybe a mouse, running around and around the apartment inside the walls. Ed was revolted by the idea but I thought it was kind of cute, a little mouse with the spunk to make it up four stories and live on our few crumbs. We both forgot about the story I had been telling, and I never told Ed about the practical joke at work.
***
THE TAPPING went on for the rest of the winter. Not all the time, but for a few minutes every second or third night. Then at the end of the month I went to a conference on the West Coast for two days, and Ed noticed that he didn’t hear it at all while I was gone. A few weeks later Ed went to a distant cousin’s wedding up north for three days. The tapping went on all night, every night, while he was gone. I searched the apartment again, chasing the sound around and around. I examined the pipes, checked every faucet for drips, turned the heat on and off, and still the tapping continued. I cleaned the floors of any crumbs a rodent could eat, I even bought a carton of unpleasant little spring traps, and the sound was still there. I turned up the television, ran the dishwasher, spent hours on the phone with old, loud friends, and still I heard it.
Tap-tap.
I was starting to think this mouse wasn’t so cute anymore.
3
THE NOISE WASN’T SO unusual, really; our building was close to a hundred years old and one expected that kind of noise. It had been built as an aspirin factory when the city still had an industrial base. After the industry moved out, one developer after another had tried to do something with the neighborhood, full of abandoned factories and warehouses like ours, but the schemes never took off. It was too far from the city, too desolate, too cold at night. As far as I was concerned it was better that the development hadn’t gone as planned. Our building was still only half full. I liked the peace and quiet.
The first time we saw the loft I was absolutely sure it was the home for us. Ed needed a little convincing.
“Think of the quiet!” I told Ed. “No neighbors!”
Conduits were in place for lighting and plumbing but they had never been utilized. We would have to do major renovation.
“Think of the possibilities!” I cried. “We can build it from scratch!”
Six white columns held up the place. Heat was provided by an industrial blower hung from the ceiling. “It has character,” I told Ed. “It has a personality!”
He relented, and we got the place at half of what we would have paid elsewhere. We spent the extra money on renovation. Ed gave me free rein to do as I pleased. I was an architect and now I could be my own dream client. I designed every detail myself, from the off-white color of the walls to the porcelain faucets on the kitchen sink to the installation of the fireplace along the south wall, which cost a fortune, but was worth the money.
The neighborhood, though, was sometimes difficult. No supermarkets, no restaurants, a few small grocery stores that specialized in beer and cigarettes. The edge of the closest commercial district for shopping was ten blocks away, and the nearest residential area was on the other side of that. But we adjusted quickly. We had a car to take us wherever we wanted on nights and weekends, and during the week we usually took the train to work. Our other concern when we first moved in was the crime, but soon enough we found out there was none. It was too desolate even for criminals. I did, however, come to be scared of the stray dogs that patrolled the neighborhood. The dogs kept their distance and I kept mine but I always felt it was an uneasy truce. I didn’t trust the animals to keep their side of the bargain. Walking home from the train I would spot one lurking in a doorway or on a street corner, eyeing me with suspicion. I was sure I would have preferred a mugger, who at least would only want my money—I didn’t know what these dogs wanted when they looked at me with their bloodshot eyes.
That fall I found out when a German shepherd mix followed me home from the train station one night. I thought running would only provoke him, so I continued to walk at a regular pace, faking nonchalance. The German shepherd trailed behind at an equally steady pace, also faking nonchalance. At the entrance to my building, a steel door up two wide steps, I put my key in the lock and thought I was home free—the dog stayed on the street. And then in one great leap he jumped up the two steps and attacked. With his front paws, as strong as human hands, he pushed me against the wall, ignoring my horrified screams, licked me right on my mouth and tried to seduce me. When I finally convinced him I wasn’t interested, he sat down by my feet, panting with a big smile. I spent a few minutes scratching behind his ears and then sneaked through the door.
I would have forgotten about him except that the next day he was waiting for me at the train station again, and the day after that. Walking home with him became a routine. He knew a few simple commands (“sit,” “stay,” “no”) and I was convinced he had started off life as somebody’s pet. I even went to a pet store and bought a bag of nutritionally balanced dog biscuits for him. On our walks home from the train I used the biscuits to teach him a few more commands—walk, lie down, stop-trying-to-fuck me (which we abbreviated as Stop). I hoped that if I got him into more civilized condition I could find a home for him. I would have liked to take him in myself but Edward was allergic; dogs, cats, hamsters, strawberries, angora, and certain types of mushrooms were all hazardous materials, to be kept out of the apartment and handled with care.
But I was glad to have at least one friend in the neighborhood. And over the next few months it was my new friend, a nameless flea-ridden mutt, rather than Ed, who would be the first to see that I was not entirely myself.
***
NOT THAT Ed wasn’t attentive, not that he didn’t notice what was going on in my life. He just wasn’t able to put the pieces together as quickly as the dog. Ed was my hero, my savior. Ed was the man who had imposed order on my my chaotic life. When I was single, I’d eaten cereal for dinner and ice cream for lunch. I’d kept my tax records in a shopping bag in the closet. I’d spent Saturdays in a hungover fog, watching hours of old black-and-white movies. With Ed I spent Saturdays outdoors, doing the things I had always imagined I should do: flea markets, lunches, museums. He did our taxes, with itemized deductions, every January, and filed the records away in a real file cabinet. Here was a man who could finish any crossword puzzle, open any bottle, reach the top shelf at the grocery store without strain. Here was stability, here was something I could rely on, my rock, day in and day out. Someone who loved me, who would never leave me alone. You can’t blame this sophisticated, civilized man for not having the same instincts as a wild dog.
Product details
- Publisher : Hell's Hundred (September 26, 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 168 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1641295244
- ISBN-13 : 978-1641295246
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.51 x 0.45 x 8.23 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #20,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #232 in Occult Fiction
- #1,612 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #2,315 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Sara Gran is the author of The Book of The Most Precious Substance. Previous work includes Saturn's Return to New York, Come Closer, Dope, Marigold, and the Claire DeWitt series. She is the founder of small press Dreamland Books and writes for television and film.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Gran's prose is both beautiful and unsettling. She paints a vivid picture of Amanda's deteriorating mental state, her growing paranoia, and the insidious influence of the entity that seems to be tormenting her. The narrative is masterfully unreliable, leaving you questioning what's real and what's a horrific manifestation of Amanda's unraveling mind.
Things I loved:
The descent into possession: Gran masterfully portrays Amanda's possession as a surreal experience, akin to tumbling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland or a waking nightmare. The narrative perfectly captures the disorienting and terrifying nature of losing control.
The fast-paced format: The story unfolds in quick, diary-like chapters that are short and suspenseful, making it a real page-turner. You'll find yourself racing through the chapters, desperate to know what happens to Amanda next.
Writing style comparisons: Gran's writing style is reminiscent of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' with its slow, steady depiction of a character's decline. However, in 'Come Closer,' the emphasis is on possession by a demonic entity rather than a descent into madness.
A fast read: The novella's format makes it a perfect choice for busy readers or those who enjoy a quick and chilling story. I devoured the book in under 3 hours, and it left a lasting impression.
A quick and entertaining read. I always enjoy reading novels where the main character descends into madness. Things definitely escalated here in an extreme manner but it was fun to see Amanda let go of the expectations society and her husband has of her. Nothing particularly surprising about the ending but I’m glad Sara Gran fully went there. However, I think the character of Amanda wasn’t as strong on page as I would have liked her to be. She needed more of a presence and electric quality, especially later in the story. Overall though, this is a fast read that is perfect for spooky season.
Come Closer by Sara Gran is one of those books that I took a chance on - it sounded interesting and it was available to read for free on Prime Reading, so I gave it a go. I was kind of skeptical because of how short it was, not sure that there would be enough time for any real character development, but I was so surprised when I read it for the first time.
Yes, the first time.
I have read this book easily over ten times now. It's one of my all-time favorite books. And since it is so short, it makes it easy to return to it time and time again.
Come Closer is kind of like an old friend. Not the kind of "old friend" that the main character, Amanda, encounters in this book (thankfully!), but an old friend that can comfort me even when I'm having a really bad day (not as bad as Amanda's days, but hey).
"We could devote our lives to making sense of the odd, the inexplicable, the coincidental, but most of us don't. And neither did I."
Amanda is your average thirty-four year old, who also happens to live in her dream apartment, have a job she loves the salary of (she's an architect), and is married to the love of her life. Her life is a good one, and she is happy with it.
And then the tapping started.
She heard it in her apartment, and so did her husband - but they both just assumed it was a mouse, or the old building they lived in. With increasing intensity each night, it was slowly starting to drive the couple kind of crazy.
But it was nothing compared to what came next.
Amanda starts noticing changes in herself - she starts smoking again, getting in fights with her husband, and even shoplifting - and she is losing chunks of time and not remembering what happens during them.
And things only get worse from there.
Finally, Amanda comes face-to-face with a horrifying truth. It's a truth she can't do anything about, a truth she can't even tell her husband, with whom her relationship has turned quite chilly.
Amanda is possessed by a demon.
And the demon has no intention of leaving her.
Ever.
"By now the most shocking truth wasn't that there were more like her and me, or that her ability to manipulate me was growing so rapidly - it was that, previously, I had been so stupid as to think I had any understanding of the universe at all."
I just love this book.
I love how it was written.
I love the plot, I love the characters, I love the dreams in some of the chapters. Every single time I read this book, I am taken from my life into Amanda's immediately. Sara Gran has such a wonderful way with words that she can not only paint the perfect picturesque setting in the book, but she can also create vivid, realistic characters that will grab onto you and not let you go, even after you've finished the book.
The character development in this book - or, I guess, recession in this case - is some of the best I've ever read. I have no idea how the author wrote Amanda's character so well, but she is probably one of my favorite literary characters ever. She went backwards - from having it all to having her entire identity stripped away from her because of the possession she deals with.
I absolutely love horror novels, but I don't really ever find myself reading books dealing with demons or possessions (I don't know why, that whole subject just freaks me out - books and movies included). I'm not exactly religious or anything, it's just downright freaky.
However, if you don't mind that subject, then this is a book you will really enjoy.
Also, even if you do mind the subject and, like me, tend to stray away from it, give this one a read anyway.
You'll never know how much you'll like it.
Top reviews from other countries
I had no expectations of being scared or creeped out or getting a big payoff, as other reviewers seem to have had. What sucked me in and won me over from the 1st few pages is Gran's style here. Tight, minimalistic, bold, and action-focused. I just knew I was in very capable and compelling hands.
This was a breeze and a pleasure to read. One of my favourite's in a long time. If you're simply looking for an absorbing, ominous nighttime page-turner, I think you've found a fantastic option.
Demonic possession aside, it really illustrates the descent of a woman that's losing herself.