Reviews with content warning for Racism - My Best Friend's Exorcism

This book was such a fun read. The nostalgia was perfect.. the only thing that dings it for me is the unnecessary racism.. I understand it's rich white kids at a private school in the 80s in Charleston, but it wasn't important to the plot at all.

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haley_mil_reads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad 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

3.75

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yesica's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

What I liked:

I liked the way Gretchen's parents reacted to the hearing about their daughter possibly being raped. Its a way of showing how not all parents react the same.

Thought out the story we see how much Abby cares about Gretchen's well being I also like how realistic her reactions to what was going on were. You sadly doing find a lot of realistic reactions in Horror novels.

What I didn't like:
What immediately took away 2 stars for me was

how casually the group of friends talked about one of the brothers drugging and raping girls in the back of his car.

Overall:
Overall this book made for an okay audiobook to listen to while in the car or while doing chores but I could not bring myself to actually sit down and read the actual book.
Even though I did not always enjoy the book and reading it felt like a chore at time I will admit that it did have a very satisfying and realistic ending.

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rainbownp's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.25

**excuse the scatter brain review. I'm on my phone and multi tasking but wanted to write something before I forgot. I'll try to remember to do it from my computer next time.

**This was a book I bought based on recommendation from a bookstore employee and I'm not disappointed.

This falls into the horror genre but I love how the author took the time to develope the main character of the book and show what new friendship looks like. The horror part is supernatural but not "watch out for the thing under your bed" after you're done scary. It is still interesting and is based off the obsession and rumors around satanism in the 80s.

That being said, this book is based in North Carolina in the 80s in a wealthy area and has some of the discomforts to go along with it. They aren't a huge part of the story but passing mentions.

You'll also hear a lot about the music, hobbies, etc. It's very authentic to the time and he really spent the time making the building of the friendship between the two main characters silly and fun, as it happens in real life.

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jerbarger's review against another edition

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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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antonebooks's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

Disappointed. I loved this author’s retail horror novel but this one missed the mark for me. It had interesting themes it seemed like he wanted to explore but terrible execution.

Also there were just too many instances of racist remarks or events that were completely unnecessary in connection to the story. Why did we, the reader, need to know about the MC’s dad having a porn fetish for black women and then have it written off as a ludicrous joke and why is there a “slave day” at the MC’s school? None of this is ever mentioned later or adds to the story.

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cuprum's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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