Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - My Best Friend's Exorcism

The Details:
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
Unabridged

This was such an entertaining read. The relationships, both toxic and pure, was such a fantastic study of high school life, but added in sinister atmosphere with the whole possession plot (which reminded me of Jennifers Body mid way through).

It wasn't really that scary but the scene with Good Boy Max the dog made me feel sick.

The manipulation of Gretchen as she became deeper consumed by her demon was interesting to see, especially when no one else could see what was happening other that Abby.

I thought the ending about friendship was so sad and true and it wrapped up perfectly, with closure, as I like my stories to do.

Content Warnings

tifftastic87's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

I was surprised by this one. I saw such mixed reviews from the reviewers that I usually align with that I didn't have high hopes, but I went in with open eyes. I am so pleased that I did.

Synopsis
Abby is a scholarship girl at a prestigious private school in South Carolina in the 80s. By the standards of the era and the region, she is an outcast. That is until a new girl comes to town, Gretchen, and becomes Abby's ride or die. Everything goes down hill when Gretchen runs off to the woods one night and comes back a little wrong. Gretchen's behavior starts spiraling out of control, none of the adults believe Abby and she finds herself ostracized and on the verge of expulsion. It all culminates when the only adult that believes Abby is a muscle bound, neon clad, evangelist. But will his faith and Abby's determination be enough to save Gretchen?

High Camp Tension
This was so campy and satirical that it really made the story for me. I have a lot of religious trauma around "deliverance" so was really pleased that it was handled in such a campy way, that made the uncomfortable bits a little easier to stomach. Every time I felt my stomach clenching there would be some sort of comedic relief. If that is not necessarily something that you look for in a horror, and I usually don't either, then maybe this one isn't for you.

Girl Crew
At first Abby is extremely unlikable, at least to me, she is selfish and whiny and somewhat rude. But she has a good moment where she makes a decision on who she wants to be and her character just changes from there to a very likeable, if not frustrating (stand up for yourself woman!), character. The friendship dynamic among the girls is actually pretty relatable to growing up in the 80s/90s. I don't know how teens treat each other now, but even in to the very early 00s this felt pretty true to form. I have heard from some reviewers that Grady Hendrix is "banned" from writing women after Final Girl Support Group, but I actually really liked how he did it here.

The Satanic Panic of it All
This, combined with the War on Drugs, was so perfect. I think this is what I wanted out of Whisper Down the Lane and was severely disappointed in that book. Abby is accused of selling drugs and committing satan worship, when she's probably the most quintessential high school student, but doing it all with perfect grades. Any time any of the kids has an emotion the adults are quick to ask "are you on drugs?" Which feels so, well, real. I have strong memories of very similar conversations in my youth.

In Short
I really enjoyed this book, I thought some of it could have been better. But only by bits and pieces. I really loved all of the chapters being named after songs from the era and how important music was to the story itself. I think this is a case where pop culture references were done very well. I would definitely recommend this to people who are new to horror, as it is very light on the horror. Though do check the content warnings.

Content Warnings

snazzy10101's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wasn’t expecting it to end the way it did and now i’m crying

Content Warnings

vreyna20_2004's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

The story had potential but fell flat. Grady said he had the title planned and not the plot and you can tell by how slow it started and how fast pace it ended. The plot picks up 40% into the book. FOURTY PERCENT. And that’s only when Gretchen brings it up. It takes until page 254 or 56% for Abby to do anything. It’s fine when authors want to explain the backstory of things to get into detail about what is going on before we’re face into the issue, but 56%?? Seriously??? This book could’ve been cut in HALF if Abby had the BALLS to just ask her friend Gretchen what was going on with her but instead she didn’t. They’re high schoolers, yes I know that but seriously even that time kids were curious of things and had no filter. I’ve heard that the story was “a happy ending” but it left me unsatisfied. I wanted Margret to get dumped by Gretchen and Abby. I wanted Glee to come and for the girls to tell her off (she was as bad maybe more than Margaret) and I wanted a better ending for Christian Lemon. When he “confessed” to his crimes I was shocked I didn’t want him to do it but understood why he did it but for him to end up working as an instructor just felt unsatisfying. The story had potential and it fell flat. I would not forgive Grady for killing Max.

I’ve heard people saying how this is how they talked during the 80s and that it’s totally okay and that’s why they love this book. Grow up. Honestly. This book may take place in the 80s but the book was written in 2016. If you can’t do the math I’ll help you, that’s 7 years ago. And the author (a WHITE CIS-MALE mind you) wrote this book should’ve been my first red flag but it was free to hear so I didn’t mind it. Besides the whole fetishization of Abby’s father’s part with having a big black woman on a vhs tape, the school having a “slave day”, Abby and Gretchen having to say “Dearly But Not Queerly” just to say they love each other, the casual mention of slurs, and the purity talk (I don’t mind this since everyone had the right to choose when to sleep with someone), and worst of all the blackface. Also some people on Goodreads are saying that cancel culture is gonna cancel this book. No one is saying that they’re canceling Grady for writing this. The issue is him contributing into it and using the excuse of “we did this back in the day” well this was written 7 years ago he knew not to put the r-slur in the book but he did. He also knew not to put the over sexualization of a black women (which thanks to porn is still happening). The reason why people bring such topics up in their reviews is to warn others to not read this if they don’t want to. And I haven’t seen a page in the book with trigger warnings. I only found out because of tiktok that this would happen.

But besides all that, the one thing that made me not give this not even a 2.50 rating was the fact that Christian Lemon confessed to the crimes and that Good Dog Max died. I would never forget Grady Hendrix.

Content Warnings

thehhugg's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

sydneynorman's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

TRIGGER WARNINGS: SEXUAL ASSUALT AND MURDER OF PET DOG

Content Warnings

geektastically's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

This was a really interesting and well written book. You feel the inspiration but once you get to the later half of the book some of the content really got to me because of how well the relationships and characters were written. Be careful reading this for sure. I'm only giving it a lower score because the back half really shook me and I had a hard time with it.

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