Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

50 reviews

eed8's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Eating disorder, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

klfgasaway's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The atmosphere is 10/10. Grady Hendrix can write a compelling novel. I loved how she distilled the essence of high school without making her characters too precocious, too self assured, or too dumb and without making me feel like I was reading YA. This felt like horror not YA horror. 

I loved the music references and it was enjoyable but look at the trigger warnings. Not much gore or violence lots of gross. 

1. The title is great. It’s flashy. It’s tight. It’s objectively a fantastic title. but once we get to the exorcism it’s like oh well clearly this is the climax and it’s probably going to work otherwise why call it that? I just think a different title would have been better for the book overall. 
2. This book dropped a whole star because of good dog max dying on screen. I know it’s horror but killing a dog “on screen” better have a much better reason than this. Very subjective opinion here but yeah. Just a personal thing. 
3. Loved how religion was portrayed in the book starting with the Bible at the birthday party. And with the twist on the exorcism itself. Brilliant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Medical content

hngisreading's review against another edition

dark funny sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

genny's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-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? No

4.5

An ode to friendship wrapped within a story full of body horror and Satanic panic. I liked it a lot! 😆 This is my second Grady Hendrix (my first being The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires); IMO this one had better pacing, and surprisingly made me quite emotional. I don't think the Satanic panic was a thing in my country, but it's always fascinating to read about.  I appreciate that Hendrix was dedicated to the 80's theme, from the little pamphlets/clippings in each chapter, to the Spotify playlist, and even to the dedications stylized as yearbook pages. This is what I'd call "fun horror"! The climax was appropriately scary and cheesy. I still get a little teary-eyed thinking about it. I picked this up not knowing there was a movie coming out, so that's a happy surprise!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism

ashleycmms's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Racism

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A cute and creepy book about 2 teenage girls and their love for one another overpowering even the most powerful of demons. I loved that the titles of each chapter were a 80’s song title. The characters were lovable even when they were being jerks. The story, while unbelievable, was fun and lighthearted and made me think of a campy 80’s horror film. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mariespuna's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Drug use and Medical content

uhm_kai's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

so fckin good and pretty gay actually

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

cheyennamarshall's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

There I was, two pages from the end, thinking this book would have a beautiful but simple ending. And then one line rips the tears out of my throat like they were just waiting or something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism

kelldel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Docking a point because Grady Hendrix is a coward for

not letting them kiss

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, and Cultural appropriation