Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Exorcist

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

34 reviews

ocelotdoll's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

After my relatively disappointing horror experience with Rosemary's Baby, I decided to give the genre a second try with The Exorcist. Whilst it succeeded at being much more successful in scaring me, it failed to engage me with the same ease of reading. Having never seen the movie because I was already terrified of the few clips of the movie I had seen, it is possible that I was primed to feel scared by the book. Nevertheless, the book as a whole has a heavy atmosphere of despair, meaning that once Regan starts fully losing herself to the demon, the book stays persistently heavy with no levity to interrupt it. It is this atmosphere that and the few good genuinely scary scenes that carry the book for me, as the style and pacing both worked against my engagement with the book. Some of the stylistic issues can be attributed to the age of the book obviously, however, some dialogues can be particularly painful to read through with characters taking pages to get to a very simple point. Additionally, the vocabulary can sometimes feel a bit too repetitive to the point of negatively impacting the horror aspects. Regan moving her head like a cobra is disturbing once but when it is said in that way for the fifth time it loses a lot of its effect. The pacing is a different issue which unfortunately has no excuse. Regan's possession is a quick process, showing symptoms by the 10% mark and taking fully hold by 30%. However, reaching 30% felt like a trudge with chapters of character set up whose relevance is still unknown making them feel like needless delays to the demonic possession set up. Additionally, by the 60% mark, the attempts at scientifically explaining Regan's condition have ceased and the process of getting the exorcism done begins. This process is however mostly uninteresting, being a simple repeat of all of her symptoms until something clicks in the characters' heads making them accept the paranormal aspect of the situation (a click that is unecessary from the reader's perspective who is already aware of this nature). Thus, whilst managing much better at being unsettling, and sometimes genuinely scary, The Exorcist is not as enjoyable a read as Rosemary's Baby was.

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cinderrunner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Brilliant example of a horror novel. Genuinely one of the best books i have yet to read in the genre. The horror isnt extremely in your face but it is still deeply unsettling. Its a bit of a slow burn. The way its written constantly challenges the notion of if Regan is truly possessed or just mentally ill, which mirror social beliefs and functions in a brilliant way. It really haunts you. The movie is, of course, iconic. But the way the book is constructed just flows and builds so much better. A must read for horro fans.

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wordsofclover's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

When Chris MacNeil's daughter starts acting strangely, she does everything in her power to help her from doctors, hospitals and medication. But as things go from bad to worse, Chris finally turns to the last place she would think in her desperation - the Catholic Church in order for them to perform an exorcism on young Regan.

This....was interesting, I guess? I'm not a huge horror reader, but predictably I'm a little basic at this time of year and often I'm feeling like picking up some kind of horror/scary book to give me the spooky, Halloween feels and there's times that this book definitely does but not so much as with what is written on the page but more so the imagining of the terror and pain going on in this family and what this demon is doing to a poor little girl. That's definitely the hardest part of this book - especially when there's a point the demon uses Regan's own hands to mutilate herself in front of her mother.

I can't say I enjoyed this book either due to the subject matter, and even though I didn't find this overly violent or gross in any way (the worse/most vulgar parts in the book were really when the priests were describing some of the consecration of the church and what some people were doing to the statues, or what this kind of consecration/devil worship entailed). There is a style to this book that is impressive, and despite some of the horror, and the language and the shocking scenes, there's an intelligence behind the story and all the characters that is evident in all of the conversations from Father Karras and Father Dyer, to Detective Kinderman.

I don't think I'd necessarily recommend this book but I'm glad I've finally picked up one of the 'horror classics'.

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