Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

14 reviews

jerbarger's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.75

At first, MY BEST FRIENDS EXORCISM really annoyed me because it felt like a man writing about teenage girls (which it is, obviously, but there often comes this sort of tone and misunderstanding of what it is to be a teenage girl—and sometimes even this underlying dislike). 

I also didn’t appreciate all the casual racism and references to sexual assault. I see what Hendrix was trying to do and set the picture of the South, but it wasn’t ever really indicted? Like it seemed he did not approve from the tone of the main character when she mentioned these things but it was totally glossed over and also THERE WERE ONLY WHITE PEOPLE, so tell me how this improves the conversation? It doesn’t. And it almost made me stop reading the book. 

With all of that being said, it is a rather interesting and unique coming-of-age story. Her best friend is possessed by a demon, but who’s the real monster? The adults who don’t believe children? Society? Classism? The way Abby goes from feeling like a child to having the understanding that we are all truly alone in this world is devastating. And that’s what MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM did best. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Cursing, Rape, Drug use, Racism, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Cultural appropriation, Excrement, and Racial slurs

shaunashares's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gore, Blood, Animal death, Gaslighting, Abortion, and Body horror

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Minor: Mass/school shootings

aseel_reads's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.75

This was a wild ride. It definitely felt authentic to the 80s, which was such an interesting (and not as great) time. I find it hard to rate the book any higher because of the subject matter but I did like the ending about friendship. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Vomit, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Violence, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Rape, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

killmoore_'s review

dark funny slow-paced

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

2.5

Lemme start by saying that I love Grady Hendrix. Southern Bookclub is one of my all time favorites, and I've truly enjoyed everything I've read by him - until I read this.

Okay.. first.. are we not going to talk about the amount of times Hendrix wrote Abbys parents as "Mr or Mrs Lang" instead of Rivers? It bugged the hell out of me. The editing in this was attrocious. Multiple weird character mixups throughout that I latched on to, and it honestly kind of ruined the rest of the book for me, haha. Also, what was the point of the entire first chapter? 

It was slow. It was corny. It was a bit painful to read at times. The exorcism itself was a bit lack luster, and the characters were shallow and forgettable (looking at you Lemon). The only saving grace here was Margaret's story, and honestly, she deserved it. 

If 80's cheese horror/teenage bimbo drama is your cup of tea, Grady nailed it. Lots of feel good friendship moments, some mildly yucky body horror, and a lot of language that is frowned upon these days.

Considering the rhythm and quality of Hendrixs other novels, this truly felt like he had a deadline coming up and pushed this out as quickly as possible. It's a shame. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Kidnapping, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Death of parent, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

vreyna20_2004's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

The story had potential but fell flat. Grady said he had the title planned and not the plot and you can tell by how slow it started and how fast pace it ended. The plot picks up 40% into the book. FOURTY PERCENT. And that’s only when Gretchen brings it up. It takes until page 254 or 56% for Abby to do anything. It’s fine when authors want to explain the backstory of things to get into detail about what is going on before we’re face into the issue, but 56%?? Seriously??? This book could’ve been cut in HALF if Abby had the BALLS to just ask her friend Gretchen what was going on with her but instead she didn’t. They’re high schoolers, yes I know that but seriously even that time kids were curious of things and had no filter. I’ve heard that the story was “a happy ending” but it left me unsatisfied. I wanted Margret to get dumped by Gretchen and Abby. I wanted Glee to come and for the girls to tell her off (she was as bad maybe more than Margaret) and I wanted a better ending for Christian Lemon. When he “confessed” to his crimes I was shocked I didn’t want him to do it but understood why he did it but for him to end up working as an instructor just felt unsatisfying. The story had potential and it fell flat. I would not forgive Grady for killing Max.

I’ve heard people saying how this is how they talked during the 80s and that it’s totally okay and that’s why they love this book. Grow up. Honestly. This book may take place in the 80s but the book was written in 2016. If you can’t do the math I’ll help you, that’s 7 years ago. And the author (a WHITE CIS-MALE mind you) wrote this book should’ve been my first red flag but it was free to hear so I didn’t mind it. Besides the whole fetishization of Abby’s father’s part with having a big black woman on a vhs tape, the school having a “slave day”, Abby and Gretchen having to say “Dearly But Not Queerly” just to say they love each other, the casual mention of slurs, and the purity talk (I don’t mind this since everyone had the right to choose when to sleep with someone), and worst of all the blackface. Also some people on Goodreads are saying that cancel culture is gonna cancel this book. No one is saying that they’re canceling Grady for writing this. The issue is him contributing into it and using the excuse of “we did this back in the day” well this was written 7 years ago he knew not to put the r-slur in the book but he did. He also knew not to put the over sexualization of a black women (which thanks to porn is still happening). The reason why people bring such topics up in their reviews is to warn others to not read this if they don’t want to. And I haven’t seen a page in the book with trigger warnings. I only found out because of tiktok that this would happen.

But besides all that, the one thing that made me not give this not even a 2.50 rating was the fact that Christian Lemon confessed to the crimes and that Good Dog Max died. I would never forget Grady Hendrix.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Racism, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Rape and Violence

Black face. It has black face and fetishization of black women.

jbfletcher's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

It was a wonderful, wonderful ride. It's a story of friendship and love at any cost, despide all the odds. I really love Grady Hendrix stories, they usually stay with me for a long time. I also think that for my generation (i was born in the 80s), this is a more relatable representation of femal friendship than, for example, My brilliant friend. I'd just not inserted ableist and racial slurs (this just one), that for me were unnecessary, but a part from this i really loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Rape, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Eating disorder, Classism, Bullying, Body shaming, Body horror, Animal death, and Ableism

hailstorm_101's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Racism, and Classism

melliedm's review

dark funny fast-paced

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

3.5

A gross, fast-paced, campy story of friendship in the face of growing up (and demons). 

Felt like the sapphic undertones were purposeful (lampshades! Lampshades everywhere!), but completely unfulfilled. How you can go from DBNQ to DAQ and then tell me how they ended and miss the chance to complete the sentence is a disappointment. But it was a fun read despite that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Vomit, Body horror, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Animal death, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, and Mental illness

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Racism, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, Classism, Cultural appropriation, and Gun violence

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Slavery

weatherd's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, Car accident, Sexism, Rape, Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Self harm, Racial slurs, and Mental illness

yungblonde's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Racism, Death, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Excrement, Slavery, Drug use, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Lesbophobia and Homophobia