“My Best Friend’s Exorcism” — Book Review

Genre: Horror, Fiction, & Supernatural

Rating: 4 stars

Wow; this book was a trip and a half! “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” by: Grady Hendrix was an intense and vivid tale into the world of horror. Mr. Hendrix has quickly become one of my favorite horror authors and this novel showcased his ability in such a spectacular fashion. This is my favorite type of Grady Hendrix book; I would say this is my second favorite after “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.” This novel was such a fun and engrossing read and was full of great 80’s nostalgia.

The story itself was a wild ride (as you would expect from the title) with really excellent characters who for the most part were well-rounded. The main character is Abby and we follow along her adolescent journey with her best friend Gretchen. All appears like your normal pre-teen and teenage time until the events of one night at a mutual friend’s house lead to Gretchen being possessed and Abby being thrown into a literal fight for her best friend’s soul. Abby is a good protagonist and I rooted for her throughout the course of the novel and it was so frustrating when things would get in her way or when nobody would believe her (in fairness I could see how it would be hard to convince people that your best friend is possessed by a demon). This novel did a really good job of setting up what seemed to be a good plan that couldn’t possibly fail and then shows how it could fail in a rather spectacular fashion.

There was definitely some very “skin crawling” inducing scenes but it was all so well done and done with a purpose that moved the story along or painted a better picture of the events that were occurring even if they could be graphic at times. Grady Hendrix has an excellent ability to detail even the most horrific events and still keep his readers engaged. Many scenes were not for the faint of heart but were very enjoyable for a fan of the horror genre like myself.

The only thing which really bothered me was the death of an animal, honestly, I saw it coming as soon as the animal was introduced but the events that led to the animal’s death were horrific (as intended) but it was still hard to bear witness to it. If you react poorly to animal death I would say that you may want to skip over that page as it is rather heartbreaking.

Abby and Gretchen’s story is one that will stay with you days after you have read it. I found the very ending of the novel very heartfelt and even felt myself getting emotional when it all came to a close. I would definitely recommend this to any horror fan!