Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

215 reviews

sophwoph's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder and Suicidal thoughts

laura_nel13's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Classism

fanboyriot's review

dark mysterious 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

Read For:

✓ Exorcism

✓ 80s Horror

✓ Teen Angst 

✓ Childhood Trauma 

✓ High School Setting

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

Had decent hope for this after watching the movie but the book was disappointing.  While there were more details in the book, it overall felt a bit lackluster.

The build up dragged out for a bit longer than I would have liked.  The set up started out good enough but when it came down to the actual plot it felt like we would always learn something we should have already known.  And of course the dog death seemed unnecessary; it added nothing to the plot and felt too much like a last minute shock factor.  Lastly, the ending was disappointing, all of that just for friends to drift away?

Spice Level: n/a

Angst Level: 💧💧

POV: Third Person

Release Date: 17, May 2016

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

kirsty_irwin's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Mass/school shootings

elleyena_rose's review against another edition

dark fast-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? It's complicated

2.5

I wanted to like this book.  I really did. The pitch was promising, the cover and art inside are great (though some of the images are unreadable on kindle). I love 80s media like Heathers and all the songs in the book, and it's ultimately about the power of friendship (and that's one of the few things that caused me to boost my rating to 2.5 stars)

But some of the language and jokes at the beginning, while likely accurate for the time, weren't necessary to the plot and could/probably should have been cut. Thankfully that either dropped off quickly (or I just stopped noticing it when the descriptions got more graphic and I got ill while reading). 

Just as some reviewers don't understand a rating less than five stars,  I don't understand how anyone could rate it at a 4 or 5. This book ultimately wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

CW because animal death was not clear enough

the possessed character kills her dog

also there's graphic descriptions of

tapeworms

coming out of someone's mouth

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful tense 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Blood, Vomit, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Racism

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

The first few chapters are about how Abby and Gretchen became friends, which made for a slow start to this novel. Hendrix is always so creative though! This has a fully planned out yearbook with photos and notes to the students/quotes as if it’s a real yearbook. Plus newspaper articles, photos, cards-loved the mixed media! I also loved that the chapters are 80s song titles ☺️

Now what I didn’t like and why it’s not rated higher:

1). Very dragged out with the event that makes Gretchen possessed not happening until about 100 pages in and then only the last 100 pages have any action.
2). Overly descriptive with telling over showing at times-the book could’ve been 100 pages shorter-plus it got to be repetitive. I got to the point where any super detailed paragraphs I would skim and I couldn’t wait for this book to end 🙊
3). I finally understand when people say his female characters aren’t well written 😂 these FMCs were soo weirdly written at times and they almost don’t feel real. We get to know Gretchen but that’s it, our narrator Abby we don’t really know as well, even though we’re following her journey.
4).

Honestly with how hard core Christian Gretchen’s parents are and the fact that it’s during the Satanic Panic I don’t know how they didn’t jump to the “she’s possessed” or a satanist conclusion at all

Hendrix’s books are hit or Miss for me since I didn’t like this one very much and DNFd We Sold Our Souls, but I loved Horrostör and Final Girl Support Group. So we’ll see how I feel about his others 🙊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, and Sexual assault

pameler's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, and Suicide attempt

mangofraiche's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Body horror

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Classism

janetsuzanne's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts