Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

98 reviews

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

smylieman's review

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Eating disorder, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Eating disorder, Classism, Body horror, Animal death, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, and Drug use

Moderate: Kidnapping, Racism, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Gun violence, and Child death

Minor: Child abuse, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

pages_with_puppies's review

challenging dark emotional lighthearted sad slow-paced

4.5

I absolutely love (most of) this book. It’s campy and fun for the first half then gets seriously nuts in the second half. Like I almost forgot I signed up for a horror book.
It was giving very much campy teen horror movie think Jennifers Body x Stranger Things. The chapter titles being songs was a hugely welcomed addition I was getting songs stuck in my head left and right.
The half star reduction was for that one scene near the end

most books where the dog dies gets a reduction im a strong believer that the author could have made their point in another way rip max you were loved

but besides that I had no other major qualms with this book. 
I was a bit bothered at first by the way the author wrote and portrayed female friendships in teenagers but after a bit it definitely started to come off as a caricature and like it was being purposefully exaggerated not just a case of men writing women poorly. I was even able to relate to the girls and their friendships a lot although sometimes it did go a little far.
And lastly who said it was ok to make me cry at the end of a horror? That ending hit so much harder than I was expecting.
Would recommend if you are into the supernatural, 80’s, female friendships, coming of age. 
Would not recommend if you are looking for a straight up horror with no deeper meaning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Rape, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Car accident

skylarkblue1's review

dark 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? It's complicated

1.75

Content Warnings: Racism, Ableism, Homophobia, Gore, Body Horror, Vomiting, Blood, Sexual Assault, Animal Death, Suicide Attempt/Thoughts, Drugs/Drugging, Violence, Death, Misogyny, Virginity Tests, Child Abuse

This was a conflicting read for me. On one hand, I love Grady’s other works and really enjoy his writing. On the other hand….. Were these many slurs needed (*literally*) constantly? I get it’s the 80s, but everyone knows those slurs and bigotry went unchecked heavily back then and it’s included in this book as just throwaway jokes and not really any commentary about that of the time.

This book is essentially the story of someone’s best friend being slowly possessed more and more as time goes by and everyone around them just seems to.. Not care. She’s trying to kill others and being seriously down-right evil but no it’s everyone around her who’s the problem - including the main character.

This book is incredibly slow, the odd moments happening here and there and like 85% of the book is just the main character trying to get *anyone* to believe their - what seems to be - insane story.

I loved Horrorstör so when I saw this one was another of his highly acclaimed books I needed to read it. But now I’m just kinda… confused? The horror wasn’t overly good and I didn’t really feel like there was any tension there. The only parts I reacted to was the

tape worm scene

just because of the graphic description rather than any actual horror or tension that was built up.

The ending was certainly a mixed bag. Badly timed attempts at comedy in the middle of what should have been tense and emotional, even more slurs randomly thrown in, abuse and then a very emotional bittersweet ending slightly ruined by the fact they’re “just” best friends (very minor spoiler on this topic:

despite literally saying this exact phrase in a serious way “I love you queerly” (yes, in a slur way but still. It was written to be taken seriously)

.

I think the ending could have saved a decent chunk of this book without the slurs and the “best friend” syndrome, but with those it kinda just fell a bit flat to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Ableism, Violence, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Misogyny

beepbopbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, Drug use, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

camilasnbr's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.5

A little heavy handed with the 80s reference for my taste (like we get it, it’s the 80s), but overall this was a fun read. I was not expecting the last two chapters to go the way they did, but I’m glad the story leant into the complicated reality of friendships. It grounded this otherwise campy story with a layer of depth not often found in the slasher genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, and Blood

tiernanhunter's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Confinement, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Gun violence, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Cursing, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, and Forced institutionalization