My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Published by: Quirk Books on May 17th, 2016
Genre: YA, Horror
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

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Summary (from Goodreads): 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?

Review: What a great book to read just before Halloween. I went into it thinking it would be similar to Horrorstor by him so I knew it would get weird at some point. I expected a more thorough description/larger part of the book to be about the exorcism itself. I was disappointed to find out that it was mediocre and short.

Characters: This was all about female friendships in a rich people school/neighbourhood. With the popularity, the rating, the high end fashion and drive for good grades to get into the best schools. Within the group of friends Gretchen and Abby are an inseparable duo. Everyone is well-off but Abby is not and she perseveres through the situation. I liked reading about the friendship between them all until things took a turn for the worst and I felt bad about how Abby was being treated and manipulated to look like a horrible person. I’m surprised she stayed by all there sides after everything that happened. The way possessed Gretchen acts is so effed up. All the parents in this were horrible. It’s that type of community where if something bad happens you just shut up about it and pay people off if need be instead of actually dealing with it and the consequences.

Plot: It is a slow buildup. For a book that has exorcism in the title you’d think that that would be the main focal point but it takes a while to get there. I think within the last 100 pages or so the horror aspect really kicks in. I feel like there was a little too much backstory of the beginning of the book. Taking us through each grade of their friendship from 5th to 10th. The ending was a bit too perfect for me. I expected it to end a less nicely then it did.

Writing: After reading this and Horrorstor you can see that Grady Hendrix likes to mix in humour and horror. It’s an odd sense of humour that I sometimes don’t understand but I can get behind it.

I guess the lesson here is don’t do LSD near the woods in the middle of the night.

Note: A dog dies in this book. I like to warn people about this because it’s always so horrible to read and I never know why authors put it in.

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