Hello, my name is Olivia from Olivia's Catastrophe
and today I'm here to give you a book review
of My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix.
This is a horror novel and I don't usually
read horror so... let me just and do this
review.
I actually really did enjoy reading this book.
It follows two main characters. Abby, who
is a teenager - well, starts off as a child
but then very quickly goes to the teenager
stage and stays a teenager. And also her best
friend, Gretchen.
And what happens is - you can tell from the
title My Best Friend's Exorcism - events lead
up to Gretchen becoming possessed by a devil.
And she starts to do some really disturbing
things. And it's basically Abby trying to
get the devil out of her, and an exorcism
is kind of the only way you've got to go with
this kind of thing.
I won this book in a giveaway and I was very
intrigued to start it because first of all
it's set in 1988. And I know lots of people
think about Stranger Things when I say that
but I haven't seen that series yet. It does
a very good job of that setting. You get all
of the things like rollerskate parties, E.T.
kind of settings, they very... they live in
a very prejudice kind of place, as well. All
these rich people even though Abby is from
a lower class. And, y'know, all these standards
of keep you virginity, don't have boyfriends
and women should be a certain way. So you
kind of get to see the prejudices of the time
mentioned and as a backdrop to the situation
in this book. I also really liked that chapter
titles were lines from songs that were really
popular at the time. It took me a while to
catch on because I don't read chapter titles.
Which isn't a good thing but I always forget
to read them! But once I caught on I was like:
oh, that's a lovely extra thing to add in
there.
I thought this book was very creepy. Maybe
it's coming from someone who doesn't read
or watch horror movies or horror books, but
for me I found it just sinister enough. And
for the first half of the book the reason
why I found this was so creepy was that it
was utterly realistic. If you take out the
whole devil situation and Gretchen is possessed
by the devil, these things could still actually
happen, and you could still actually have
someone who hates you enough to try and manipulate
everything around you. And because it was
so realistic and these terrible things could
happen, someone could want to do this to you
and pile all the evidence against you like
this so that you feel isolated, alone and
being implicated for all these things you
didn't do. Just because that was done so realistically
this book creeped me out to another level.
However, when it came to the more demon kind
of things, the supernatural and we found out
there was actually a demon, and it came to
the whole exorcism stage, I was a little bit
less creeped out because I knew it was more
of a supernatural, paranormal kind of thing.
The realistic element was what actually creeped
me out in this book.
The suspense just went up and up and up the
further we got into the book as Gretchen's
plans and her evil plans kind of all fall
into place and start working out the way she
wants them to. And just Gretchen turns into
this horribly disturbing person who is so
different from the person that we meet at
the beginning of the novel that it just - it
shook me. I was shook to the core.
It was written pretty well and the style was
pretty suited. At the beginning of the book,
when you first open it, it's like a yearbook
kind of thing. Because this all happens during
secondary school. And I liked that setting
of the yearbook. But other than the first
two pages it doesn't pursue that anymore which
was a bit of a disappointment because I did
enjoy seeing it. But other than that the writing
style was pretty good. It was mostly straight
forward and not overly descriptive. But dialogue
was really important because of way they were
saying and what was being said. And the setting
was just woven so well into the story that
it was effortless. So I did really enjoy reading
the actual book itself.
I also, as I have been digging books with
friendship lately, loved Abby and Gretchen's
friendship. Or the parts of their friendship
that we see before the whole demon possesses
them. They're so tight, even when they're
in a group of friends where is like 4 of them
instead of just them two, they're just so
tight. They know each other in and out and
they would literally do anything for each
other. And friendships like that are so valuable
so I just loved reading about the friendship.
There was one thing I didn't really like about
this book and that was the ending. I felt
like the book had a bit of a rushed ending,
and it was kind of a happily ever after ending.
I don't think it should have ended so conveniently,
and so well for the characters. I felt like
there should have been some more reprecussions
of everything that happened, or that their
friendship would've been a bit tainted from
this experience. Because, y'know, when Gretchen
was a devil she was just horrible to Abby.
And, I mean, Abby knows it wasn't her but
it still would have left some impression.
I felt like something should've changed, to
some extent. I just felt like the ending was
just a little bit too happily ever after.
And the ending kind of spanned too many years.
So if they narrowed down the timeline a little
bit, I would've been able to enjoy the end
to this book a little bit more.
This was a pretty short review but there's
not really much more I can say about this
one and it's not my usual genre so I'm not
really sure what to say. It's quite character
driven, a bit of plot action, creepy up until
the ending, I would say. And - yes, it also
had a very interesting take on religion and
how religion was woven into it. I don't really
have anything to say but y'know, if it's a
book dealing with like, devils and exorcisms,
of course there's going to be some element
of religion critique or religion included
in it, I guess? That was so unclear. I hope
you guys understood.
Okay, well, that is that. In the comment section
down below, let me know if there is a genre
you don't usually read. And if there is a
genre that you're trying to read a bit more
of, like me trying to get into horror. If
you've got any horror recommendations please
let me know down below because I am looking
to try some more. Thank you so much for watching!
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