Review: My Best Friend’s Exorcism
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Genre: Horror | Publication Date: 5/16/2016 | Pages: 337 | Month read: October 2024
What made me pick this up?
I read and loved The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Hendrix a few years ago, and quickly bought this book after finishing. For whatever reason, this has been the longest reigning book on my TBR cart but this spooky season, it was time—and I am kicking myself for having waited this long to read it!
“She and Gretchen spent hours ranking their friendships, trying to determine who was a best friend and who was an everyday friend, debating whether anyone could have two best friends at the same time, writing each other’s names over and over in purple ink, buzzed on the dopamine high of belonging to someone else, having a total stranger choose you, someone who wanted to know you, another person who cared that you were alive.”
GoodReads synopsis: 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?
My Thoughts
Okay, I know I said in the intro to this review that I don’t know why I put off reading this book for so long but I do partly know—I’m quite scared of demon/exorcism horror stories. There’s something about them that unsettles me more than other horror sub-genres and I knew I needed to be in the right headspace going into this one. And I’m sure glad I waited for the timing!
This story is definitely unsettling, and has several scenes and imagery that had me slack-jawed, closing the book to take a moment. The overall pacing felt like a tense buildup to the last third of the book—the ultimate crescendo—and I literally could not put it down until I got to the ending.
This is not a book that’s horror just for horror’s sake; there’s depth, complex characters and relationship dynamics, and ultimately a deep exploration into friendship and how it evolves over time and through trials. The reflections and themes about coming of age through middle and high school, and the experiences of friendship, identity formation and social belonging during those times were both relatable, humorous, and thought-provoking.
And of course, the 80s vibes and references were wonderful and campy! Hendrix does a great job with establishing a sense of place in his books, really settling the reader into both the era and setting to enhance the reading experience.
Even though I tend to be a scaredy cat when it comes to demon/exorcism horror, I found this to be very approachable, readable and comfortably within my horror capacity range. Entertaining and thought-provoking, this is slated to be one of my favorites this year!
My rating: ★★★★★
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
If you’re looking for more recommendations like this, check out this post for more horror & spooky book recs!
