princesspunkass's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
karreaderwriter's review against another edition
5.0
I was back living in the 80’s with the big hair and rock and roll. As a teen girl there’s nothing more important than your best friend. I could relate. Grady Hendrix really knows the teenage girl voice. Impressive.
Abby’s best friend Gretchen starts acting weird and after many incidents Abby is determined her friend is possessed by the devil.
A cast of characters both funny and scary fill the pages with a lot of grotesque scenes straight out of the Exorcist- which was my first real horror movie viewing.
Pretty disturbing, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from one of my favorite horror writers.
Abby’s best friend Gretchen starts acting weird and after many incidents Abby is determined her friend is possessed by the devil.
A cast of characters both funny and scary fill the pages with a lot of grotesque scenes straight out of the Exorcist- which was my first real horror movie viewing.
Pretty disturbing, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from one of my favorite horror writers.
busybethonthego's review against another edition
3.0
This didn’t live up the hype of being so fun. The playlist was cool, but felt a little gimmicky. I told a friend about the book because I knew they’d appreciate the music playlist as an immersive experience.
queenterribletimy's review against another edition
5.0
This review originally was posted on RockStarlit BookAsylum!
My Best Friend’s Exorcism, as the title probably tells you, at its core is a story of friendship. Abby and Gretchen are friends since they were 10. They do everything together. They know each other the best. They are probably more sisters than friends. So when things take a horrible turn it’s time to test their bond – will it be strong enough or the horror will break it for good?
Personally I liked how the first 20% or so of the book shows us how Abby and Gretchen grows up, how their friendship gets stronger and stronger, how their dynamic works. By the time we get to the heart of the plot, we already have an understanding about them.
The main events take place in the summer of 1988 (which is the best year ever, I dare you to fight me on that). This era is about music, about change and about satanism. Abby and Gretchen live in a small town and though they both go to the elite Academy, their life couldn’t be any different – while Gretchen’s parents have money and are strict and religious, Abby’s parents can hardly pay the bills and hardly care about their daughter as long as she stays out of trouble and has good grades.
So, to no one’s surprise the only one who remains on Gretchen’s side when all the shit goes down is Abby, and even then she has a hard time. Abby is a great heroin – she is relentless, she has her flaws and she is loyal to a fault. She stops at nothing, even if that means she has to bear consequences she wouldn’t have to. Or that she has to stand against the world
My favourite thing about My Best Friend’s Exorcism is that perfectly gives back the 80s. Well, how I imagine the 80s anyway. Hendrix is good at creating this atmosphere of reality laced with the creepy supernatural. Which still feels way too goddamn real. There are a handful of really creepy scenes there which made me regret my decisions as I happened to read them at either right before going to sleep or while I was eating my dinner. So. Typical.
The other thing I loved – duh – was that the book was full of music references. The girls lives were surrounded, even highlighted by it. Which was well expressed in the chapter titles, doubling as actual song titles. Hendrix had a similar approach in We Sold Our Souls too, and I loved it there too.
Overall, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is a highly entertaining and fast read. Sure, it has some teen drama as almost all characters are teens so that’s kinda expected, but that doesn’t mean adult readers wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of it. My Best Friend’s Exorcism ultimately makes one think about the nature of real friendship. Something all of us need some lessons about.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism, as the title probably tells you, at its core is a story of friendship. Abby and Gretchen are friends since they were 10. They do everything together. They know each other the best. They are probably more sisters than friends. So when things take a horrible turn it’s time to test their bond – will it be strong enough or the horror will break it for good?
Personally I liked how the first 20% or so of the book shows us how Abby and Gretchen grows up, how their friendship gets stronger and stronger, how their dynamic works. By the time we get to the heart of the plot, we already have an understanding about them.
The main events take place in the summer of 1988 (which is the best year ever, I dare you to fight me on that). This era is about music, about change and about satanism. Abby and Gretchen live in a small town and though they both go to the elite Academy, their life couldn’t be any different – while Gretchen’s parents have money and are strict and religious, Abby’s parents can hardly pay the bills and hardly care about their daughter as long as she stays out of trouble and has good grades.
So, to no one’s surprise the only one who remains on Gretchen’s side when all the shit goes down is Abby, and even then she has a hard time. Abby is a great heroin – she is relentless, she has her flaws and she is loyal to a fault. She stops at nothing, even if that means she has to bear consequences she wouldn’t have to. Or that she has to stand against the world
My favourite thing about My Best Friend’s Exorcism is that perfectly gives back the 80s. Well, how I imagine the 80s anyway. Hendrix is good at creating this atmosphere of reality laced with the creepy supernatural. Which still feels way too goddamn real. There are a handful of really creepy scenes there which made me regret my decisions as I happened to read them at either right before going to sleep or while I was eating my dinner. So. Typical.
The other thing I loved – duh – was that the book was full of music references. The girls lives were surrounded, even highlighted by it. Which was well expressed in the chapter titles, doubling as actual song titles. Hendrix had a similar approach in We Sold Our Souls too, and I loved it there too.
Overall, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is a highly entertaining and fast read. Sure, it has some teen drama as almost all characters are teens so that’s kinda expected, but that doesn’t mean adult readers wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of it. My Best Friend’s Exorcism ultimately makes one think about the nature of real friendship. Something all of us need some lessons about.
“She could decide how she was going to be. She had a choice. Life could be an endless series of joyless chores, or she could get totally pumped and make it fun. There were bad things, and there were good things, but she got to choose which things to focus on.”
My Best Friend’s Exorcism, as the title probably tells you, at its core is a story of friendship. Abby and Gretchen are friends since they were 10. They do everything together. They know each other the best. They are probably more sisters than friends. So when things take a horrible turn it’s time to test their bond – will it be strong enough or the horror will break it for good?
Personally I liked how the first 20% or so of the book shows us how Abby and Gretchen grows up, how their friendship gets stronger and stronger, how their dynamic works. By the time we get to the heart of the plot, we already have an understanding about them.
The main events take place in the summer of 1988 (which is the best year ever, I dare you to fight me on that). This era is about music, about change and about satanism. Abby and Gretchen live in a small town and though they both go to the elite Academy, their life couldn’t be any different – while Gretchen’s parents have money and are strict and religious, Abby’s parents can hardly pay the bills and hardly care about their daughter as long as she stays out of trouble and has good grades.
So, to no one’s surprise the only one who remains on Gretchen’s side when all the shit goes down is Abby, and even then she has a hard time. Abby is a great heroin – she is relentless, she has her flaws and she is loyal to a fault. She stops at nothing, even if that means she has to bear consequences she wouldn’t have to. Or that she has to stand against the world
My favourite thing about My Best Friend’s Exorcism is that perfectly gives back the 80s. Well, how I imagine the 80s anyway. Hendrix is good at creating this atmosphere of reality laced with the creepy supernatural. Which still feels way too goddamn real. There are a handful of really creepy scenes there which made me regret my decisions as I happened to read them at either right before going to sleep or while I was eating my dinner. So. Typical.
The other thing I loved – duh – was that the book was full of music references. The girls lives were surrounded, even highlighted by it. Which was well expressed in the chapter titles, doubling as actual song titles. Hendrix had a similar approach in We Sold Our Souls too, and I loved it there too.
Overall, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is a highly entertaining and fast read. Sure, it has some teen drama as almost all characters are teens so that’s kinda expected, but that doesn’t mean adult readers wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of it. My Best Friend’s Exorcism ultimately makes one think about the nature of real friendship. Something all of us need some lessons about.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism, as the title probably tells you, at its core is a story of friendship. Abby and Gretchen are friends since they were 10. They do everything together. They know each other the best. They are probably more sisters than friends. So when things take a horrible turn it’s time to test their bond – will it be strong enough or the horror will break it for good?
Personally I liked how the first 20% or so of the book shows us how Abby and Gretchen grows up, how their friendship gets stronger and stronger, how their dynamic works. By the time we get to the heart of the plot, we already have an understanding about them.
The main events take place in the summer of 1988 (which is the best year ever, I dare you to fight me on that). This era is about music, about change and about satanism. Abby and Gretchen live in a small town and though they both go to the elite Academy, their life couldn’t be any different – while Gretchen’s parents have money and are strict and religious, Abby’s parents can hardly pay the bills and hardly care about their daughter as long as she stays out of trouble and has good grades.
So, to no one’s surprise the only one who remains on Gretchen’s side when all the shit goes down is Abby, and even then she has a hard time. Abby is a great heroin – she is relentless, she has her flaws and she is loyal to a fault. She stops at nothing, even if that means she has to bear consequences she wouldn’t have to. Or that she has to stand against the world
My favourite thing about My Best Friend’s Exorcism is that perfectly gives back the 80s. Well, how I imagine the 80s anyway. Hendrix is good at creating this atmosphere of reality laced with the creepy supernatural. Which still feels way too goddamn real. There are a handful of really creepy scenes there which made me regret my decisions as I happened to read them at either right before going to sleep or while I was eating my dinner. So. Typical.
The other thing I loved – duh – was that the book was full of music references. The girls lives were surrounded, even highlighted by it. Which was well expressed in the chapter titles, doubling as actual song titles. Hendrix had a similar approach in We Sold Our Souls too, and I loved it there too.
Overall, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is a highly entertaining and fast read. Sure, it has some teen drama as almost all characters are teens so that’s kinda expected, but that doesn’t mean adult readers wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of it. My Best Friend’s Exorcism ultimately makes one think about the nature of real friendship. Something all of us need some lessons about.
stubbornbones's review against another edition
5.0
This book fucking rules. It's gross it's terrifying it's everything I hoped it would be and more.
knick_nat's review against another edition
3.0
I had such high hopes for this book but it was a bit of a let down. Lots of pop culture references which sometimes felt suffocating- I get it they were in the 80s. But also rather than campy it felt corny. Abby was a pretty naïve charge for her age sometimes I forgot that she was in high school. Gretchen was wicked, would’ve loved her perspective
kyaaa's review against another edition
5.0
ohhhhh man this is one of the best books ive read in awhile. probably the best book ive read all year! incredibly fun and fast paced and dark and interesting and heart wrenching. omg i loved every single second of it and i cant wait to read all of hendrix’s books.
ruhhnay's review against another edition
5.0
I genuinely loved this book. It had me hooked from start to finish and I loved the characters. Hilarious, unique, quick, witty, and nostalgic all while still giving the spooky vibes. So glad I have this one on my bookshelf.