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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
This was a surprisingly wonderful read! It was disturbing, freaky, touching, witty, different, all in one. Really, really liked it. Super quick read too!
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This story focuses on two teenage girls that are best friends in the 80s. It starts out a little slow but definitely picked up around the middle and didn’t slow down. There was a lot of body horror centred around the idea of a demonic possession. But the main focus was the friendship and what lengths you would go to save your best friend. My only complaint is that the reason that she was possessed in the first place is not really clear? Maybe I missed it? I haven’t watched the movie yet but I will definitely watch it now. The part I loved the most was how the author captured what high school was like in the 80s. It felt like a Time Machine for me. I enjoyed the exorcism story but the attention to detail about the time period was what stood out in this book.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
fast-paced
I absolutely loved this book! It was a fast-paced and wonderfully nostalgic read that has been on my TBR for years, and my first by Grady Hendrix. I'm so glad I finally read it! The friendship between Abby and Gretchen was the heart of the story and was beautifully done. I also thought the chapter titles, all named after 80s songs, were a perfect touch. There are some rough moments, so be sure to check the trigger warnings.
dark
funny
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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:
Yes
I love this book!:)
So much 80s nostalgia, so much exorcism, and so much more friendship
So much 80s nostalgia, so much exorcism, and so much more friendship
Spoilers ahead!
What a cracking read. A tremendously fun book full of teenage angst and complicated girl friendships, but also with a surprising amount of heart and depth, particularly at the end of the book. I mostly wanted to read this because of what the cover promised, and it gave me a lot more than that.
The book is very well structured, it sets up the core friendship between Abby and Gretchen, their wider circle of friends and life at their school, their routines (which are so deliciously teenage and '80s), and then things change. The various ways in which things get worse and worse keep the story moving forward at great speed, and several times I found myself reading on for longer into the night because I couldn't put the book down. The characters were diverse and well written, and Hendrix has great eye for the dynamics that drive school life and the immature and fickle friendships between teenage children.
It takes a while to arrive at the actual exorcism scene, which isn't surprising because otherwise the book would be over very quickly. The exorcism itself I found slightly confusing. I'm not convinced of Hendrix's choice of exorcist. It would've been too easy and too The Exorcist to pick any old priest, but I didn't find his more unusual pick of chunky bodybuilder Brother Christian Lemon entirely successful either. He's a little bit too cartoonish. When he leaves halfway through the exorcism I did expect him to come back and I just didn't understand why he didn't. It didn't make sense. I'm still not entirely clear whether he was just a coward or whether he lied about his and his dad's experience as an exorcist.
I did appreciate that eventually Abby saves Gretchen through the strength of her love for her friend. She hasn't given up on her throughout any of the awful events in the book and it was logical that she wasn't going to give up now. So in some ways I suppose it's good that the exorcist left Abby to save her best friend from the forces of evil. I think she might have been the only one who could have saved Gretchen.
I loved how the book ended and I love that it told us how they grew past childhood and into adulthood--that's often missing from teenage stories, how life moves on past that stage in life. However supernatural their early lives were, Gretchen and Abby went on to live normal, human lives, constantly moving towards and away from each other as life distracts them and their shared love and history pulls them together again. A really lovely ending to a great book.
What a cracking read. A tremendously fun book full of teenage angst and complicated girl friendships, but also with a surprising amount of heart and depth, particularly at the end of the book. I mostly wanted to read this because of what the cover promised, and it gave me a lot more than that.
The book is very well structured, it sets up the core friendship between Abby and Gretchen, their wider circle of friends and life at their school, their routines (which are so deliciously teenage and '80s), and then things change. The various ways in which things get worse and worse keep the story moving forward at great speed, and several times I found myself reading on for longer into the night because I couldn't put the book down. The characters were diverse and well written, and Hendrix has great eye for the dynamics that drive school life and the immature and fickle friendships between teenage children.
It takes a while to arrive at the actual exorcism scene, which isn't surprising because otherwise the book would be over very quickly. The exorcism itself I found slightly confusing. I'm not convinced of Hendrix's choice of exorcist. It would've been too easy and too The Exorcist to pick any old priest, but I didn't find his more unusual pick of chunky bodybuilder Brother Christian Lemon entirely successful either. He's a little bit too cartoonish. When he leaves halfway through the exorcism I did expect him to come back and I just didn't understand why he didn't. It didn't make sense. I'm still not entirely clear whether he was just a coward or whether he lied about his and his dad's experience as an exorcist.
I did appreciate that eventually Abby saves Gretchen through the strength of her love for her friend. She hasn't given up on her throughout any of the awful events in the book and it was logical that she wasn't going to give up now. So in some ways I suppose it's good that the exorcist left Abby to save her best friend from the forces of evil. I think she might have been the only one who could have saved Gretchen.
I loved how the book ended and I love that it told us how they grew past childhood and into adulthood--that's often missing from teenage stories, how life moves on past that stage in life. However supernatural their early lives were, Gretchen and Abby went on to live normal, human lives, constantly moving towards and away from each other as life distracts them and their shared love and history pulls them together again. A really lovely ending to a great book.