Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

95 reviews

cecinamo's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I did enjoy the book a lot, but sometimes it was a little to gory for my taste. Still it was really well written and a great book for spooky season! 🎃 

I didn’t really get how they exorcized the demon in the end? It kinda just seemed like “yay! The power of friendship saved the day” ? Idk maybe I’m being nitpick-y 
Also Abby and Gretchen were definitely more than friends ;)

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Ableism

sedwards1992's review

dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.5

I laughed. I squirmed. I cried. Highly recommend this read if you like new twists on old stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Vomit, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death, Rape, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Eating disorder, Animal death, and Gun violence

mtnest's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Torture, Alcohol, Rape, Sexual assault, Gore, Cursing, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Mental illness, Vomit, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction and Mass/school shootings

demon possession

seren's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Torture, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, and Rape

chanceofbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Animal death, Gore, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Vomit

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

immovabletype's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

this almost feels like horror magical realism for much of the book and I love that about it. and though this didn't occur to me until I'd finished it has that element of Buffy that I love so much, where the monster is a metaphor for growing up. in this case it's specifically about female friendships, and was done so well. it felt pretty darn authentic to my experience growing up in the 80s/90s, and how those friendships could feel so fraught and so full of love at the same time. how do you know these things, Grady Hendrix, you are a man

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Body shaming, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, and Mass/school shootings

tifftastic87's review against another edition

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.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Torture, Bullying, Classism, Mental illness, Grief, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Infidelity, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Rape, and Gore

snazzy10101's review

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Eating disorder, Rape, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug use, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

ahopper7's review

dark funny medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was overall a disappointment for me. I was really hoping for 80s horror like Strangers Things, but you can really tell this was written in current times, in a bad way.

Here is what I loved:
- the main theme of besties for life, especially the way it ended
- the 80s references (caveat for the unnecessary slang that is now problematic, see below for dislike)
- the exorcism was hilarious for me, top notch 80s horror comedy scene 

Here is what didn’t work for me:
- overall the characters weren’t really likeable, like any of them, I feel like I can tell that a middle aged man wrote these teen girls 
- the wholly unnecessary problematic language (e.g. DBNQ, the ‘r’ word, comparing someone that to an Ethiopian child, “slave” day, etc.); I get it, the story is set in the 80s, it was a different time, etc. but the book was still written in 2016 and those references do NOTHING to advance the story or add to it, so I found it off-putting and unnecessary

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Animal death

Moderate: Eating disorder, Bullying, and Rape

Minor: Slavery, Drug use, and Alcohol

amberbjorge's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, Vomit, Eating disorder, Torture, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Animal death