A book a day: PIRANHA NOVELS #1: Get closer by Sara Gran

Original language: English

Original title: Come Closer

Year of publication: 2003

Translation: María Pérez de San Román

Valuation: recommended, especially if you are not expecting a (very) horror story

First of all, the most important thing: What is a PIRANHA NOVEL (La Voz de Galicia says)? Well, it is said of small but bully novels, short but intense, with a harmless air but with bite. They may seem like innocent little fish, but even more so if they catch you between their sharp teeth, you can already assume that you are not going to let go. With more danger than a piranha in a bidet, wow… In Un Libro Al Día we have already reviewed many novels of this type (I can think of, to mention examples of more or less recent publication, Woodworm, donkey belly o The blind horse) but it never hurts to dedicate a thematic week to a narrative subtype (not subgenre) that gives us so many joys and moments of reading happiness and, we hope, will continue to give us for a long time. Because piranhas, nothing else, but they are tough to peel…

Let’s go, in this case, with one of the hypes of the horror genre of the year… well, of the year 2003, because in Spain it was not translated and published until twenty years later, something truly incomprehensible for anyone who reads the novel. Or a novel, I should specify, since it is a book that is not too long, with rather short chapters and that, furthermore, can be read in one breath because the story it tells and, above all, how it is told makes you immerse yourself in it. to the reader (and not just to me, this is what everyone who reviews this novel repeats) in an absolute way. And that, in principle, is nothing more than a variation of an already well-known theme in this genre, that of demonic possessions. In this case, the possessed person is not a girl who ends up vomiting green liquid and going down stairs doing a handstand, nor a novice from a convent or other classic subjects (or subjects, because as our admired Mariana Enriquez points out in the prologue, Those who suffer (apparently, these possessions are overwhelmingly women), but rather a thirty-something-year-old architect named Amanda, satisfied with her life, which, although it may not be completely perfect, does appear somewhat cool and happy that can be the envy of anyone: zero problems, zero dramas, professional and sentimental success… in short, it is not surprising that he attracts a demon – or demon, to be exact – who decides to enter his life and have a little – a lot – fun at their expense.

The most interesting thing about this novel is that the narrator is Amanda herself and she tells us how this possession occurs, gradually and we could even say gently; In fact, at first the signs are so subtle that the protagonist – and even the readers – think that perhaps it is just some psychological disorder, until, of course, the bitches tricks to which the devil subjects him become of such caliber that they leave no room for doubt. This smoothness in the development of the plot means that we do not encounter any major shocks and even the disturbing atmosphere in which Amanda is immersed more and more deeply is quite bearable (for the reader, I mean, not for her), however unequivocal. hence what I have put in the evaluation of the book: it is, of course, a horror novel, but not very scary (although it is true that this is something quite subjective; therefore, take my subjectivity as a mere indication) .

What is clear, in any case, is that the most notable thing about the novel is how we witness a downhill race towards disaster – or a process of entropy, as it is cooler to say now -; a debacle that seems unstoppable, without anything the protagonist does – apparently, I insist: I don’t want to “spoil” the plot to anyone – to avoid it. In this lies the true terror of the story, more than, as I said, scares, supernatural appearances and other common tropes of the genre. In that and in the fact that Gran manages to put us in Amanda’s skin in a way that is not only credible, but also fascinating, almost addictive. I hope that, in addition to the enjoyment of whoever reads it, this novel, short but absorbing, will help us pay more attention to this excellent writer (something that, by the way, and I apologize for the self-aggrandizement, I already expressed years ago, in a previous review).

Also by Sara Gran and reviewed in A Book Al Día: Claire De Witt and the City of the Dead