My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
What pulled me in first to this novel was the cover.
That retro 80’s VHS cheesy B horror movie vibe it has in that artwork….
GET OUTTA HERE WITH THAT COOLNESS….I am *so* here for it!
As a self professed “Xennial” who was born in the year 1980, anything with those mid to late 80s vibes brings me all the way back to my childhood years, yall.
I have a sister who was 7 years older than me, so I think I absorbed a lot more than other kids of my age did at the time—the music, the fashion, the slang.
So any of those teen 80’s vibes bring me BACK, yall!
What pulled me in next was realizing the author of this book was the author of the book I just finished.
That book, “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires”, I friggin’ LOVED so I had high hopes I’d love this one too.
The third and final thing that pulled me into this novel was seeing it described as an “unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist”.
With Halloween season now upon us (I don’t care that it’s September, in my opinion IT IS UPON US!), I wanted to keep my creepy book streak going.
so I said “YAAASSSS let’s DO THIS!”
This book takes place in the same town as the Vampire book.
This one was written BEFORE the other one, but their storylines aren’t really connected…just kinda parallel.
Same town, same time period (this one was a few years prior), same nostalgia, same creepy vibes.
This story DEFINITELY has a Stranger Things type of essence (BTW I am *just now* watching this show…I am always late to the party…I am on season 3 right now and wish I wouldn’t have waited so damn long to watch!)
The weird shit happening to kids, the grown ups not paying enough attention, the pop culture references, the small town situation…all that reminded me of the Hawkins, Indiana situation.
This book was a little scary, a little funny and a lot entertaining, just like the other book.
Definitely creepy ass vibes with some teen angst and high school shenanigans thrown in.
And it was SO 1980s, in big and small ways.
Obvi the big hair, the pop music references, the fashion….
But also…
The dismissing of teens, the ignoring of trauma, the blaming everything on drug use, and Satanic Panic.
Oh man, the gaslighting is STRONG in this book just as it was in the Vampire book–but this time, it is ADULTS gaslighting teen Abby, who is the only one with sense trying to tell them something deeply and truly ain’t right with her BFF Gretchen.
One of the deeper messages of this story was how our close friendships in our childhood/teen years can be so so so impactful and so so so important.
Those bonds can feel like lifelines and when they are threatened or severed, it can be world shattering.
I felt that HARD.
This book was SUPER and I cruised thru listening to it in just a couple days.
The narrator was awesome—her demon voice even had me like 😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨
I just discovered that Amazon made an original movie based on this book last year so I’ll definitely be taking a Stranger Things pause and watching that this weekend sometime.
It looks hella campy (which I ADORE) and hella close to the original story (which I also adore) so I’m pumped to watch.