Wednesday, August 3, 2016

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix- Book Review

If you are a child of the 80s, like teen dramas, and are way into the exorcist, My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix is your dream book!

This is the story of best friends Abby and Gretchen, who meet each other at a roller derby ET birthday party when they are the only two there. Instantly they become best friends and grow up together.

Most of the book takes place in High School in the late 80s. After a party where Abby, Gretchen, and their two other friends take acid, Gretchen runs off into the woods nude and alone. Hours later, they find her, but Abby notices she is different, she doesn't know why, but there is something off.

As the story progresses, Gretchen becomes dirtier and smellier, she starts throwing up white bile and feathers, and she keeps complaining that someone is touching the back of her neck. Things continue to get worse and worse, until one day Gretchen shows up perfectly normal, except a lot meaner.

As Abby and Gretchen's friendship begins to fall apart, a traveling Christian body builder group comes to Abby and Gretchen's school. One of the body builders notices a demon inside of Gretchen and swears he can help Abby totally kick the ass of the demon. What will happen as the demon takes more control of Gretchen and as their friends also begin to fall apart?

It is hard not to love all the 80s references in the book. The design of the hard cover is that of a year book complete with signatures and messages from friends. Each chapter is an 80s song title and there are many references about 80s pop culture within the book. The one I kept wondering when it was going to get mentioned was The Exorcist. Hint: It is only mentioned at the end.

As for the book itself, it is fun and playful with some gruesome scenes in it. It isn't scary, but more horrific. It is also a very slow burn, almost too slow. It is a 330 page book with the first show of something weird on page 96 with major things happening around page 250 or so. It takes a long time to get to where it needs to be.

I have to add that I loved the exorcist as a Christian Body Builder. I loved it because I once took a youth group to one of these shows when I was a younger pastor looking for entertainment for a youth group. Ripping phone books in the name of Jesus, lifting heavy things with a semi Christian message, and an underlying homosexual/sexual undertone were all part of the real show. It was fun seeing that in the book rather than the old priest stereotype.

I did enjoy the book, but due to the slowness of the book, I rated it a little lower. It kind of plods a bit and focuses more on the teen drama rather than the occult. There are also many plot problems within the book, but it was still fun.

I gave it a 3.5. Give it a try.

Here is your Amazon link- My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

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