My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix

Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act….different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? (link)

Review: 4/5

As you can tell from my Instagram layout, I rarely read horror books, so this was an interesting choice for me to dive deeper into the genre (thanks to the general interest I had after I read Haunting of Hill House.) I was drawn to this book by seeing the gnarly retro cover in Waterstones, and I’d been thinking about it ever since. Turns out, you can and SHOULD judge a book by its cover! Well, maybe not all the time, but it worked out for me in this case.

I loved this book, it made my skin crawl and feel tingly, and I was screaming “WHAT” in my head for most of the time. I think there were a few times where I was screaming it out loud, too. Upon looking it up, I just found out that the book was turned into a movie? Oh… now it’s getting serious.

I don’t typically jive with the classic 80’s clique scenes; Breakfast Club, The Goonies, The Outsiders… I don’t know, I always was so mature (barf) and I’ve eclipsed the need for clique validation. (Don’t bring up my love of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!!! Shut up!!!) So it was hard for me in the beginning of the book to relate to the characters who transcended their cliques and were friends… but ya know, everyone can relate to feeling out of place at least once in their life, so of course I pulled my little empathy cap on! It would be literally selfish of me not to. Then I was like, awhhhh classic!

The entire character of the exorcist also provided a lot of comedic clarity for me. As this book continue to get darker and deeper and more serious, I think the idea of having an exorcist that is completely unreliable and unexperienced (who also fits the role of a funny bodybuilding, comedic relief) just really added to the sincerity of the book. I feel like if you were a teenager in the 80s, and you were going through what our main character went through and you’re only option was to find an exorcist that was completely unexperienced and serious about the whole thing, it kind of hints that insecurity that the main character is experiencing. I thought it was really cool to see that her insecurity was manifesting in realistic and personal forms of how she was going to help her friend.

Also, the whole scene of the possession was CRAZY! I was so scared during it because the culmination of details; waiting for the LSD to kick in, the girls being by themselves, and walking around in the dark of an unknown area… I was on edge! The story-telling Grady Hendrix utilizes is unlike anything I’ve read, and I really favored it.

The entire book, I was questioning if it was a psychological thriller; was Abby delusional and just in denial of her best friend pulling away from her naturally, like girl friends often do? Or was there really a demonic spirit doing its nasty thing and tearing this town apart? I couldn’t tell until the exorcism, and what a fantastic build-up!

I’ll end with the obvious, this book is led by a playlist of 80’s songs that the titles of each song correspond with each chapter. Oh, my heart is aflutter! I didn’t know this going into reading it, but I loved it nonetheless. However, I thought that my playlist should be a little different from the one in the book, since I’m so set on giving my loyal fans (yes, you!) a taste of a different perspective. Wow, how generous of me. So, my playlist has mostly songs that SOUND retro, but aren’t actually from the time period, blended with some rightfully classic tunes. Enjoy, because I do!

Spotify: LINK