Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

53 reviews

eccentricutie's review

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

The scariest parts of this book are the racism and other isms. Black people are props for furthering the setting/story of rich white girls in stereotypical ways when actually mentioned. It could have been good if these things weren't just thrown randomly in there for no necessary reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Blood, and Cultural appropriation

thiscryptidreads's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

 This book is dripping with 80's nostalgia. Grady Hendrix is great at setting a scene and immersing you into the book. I listened to it on audiobook and all it was missing was background music fit to be played by John Cusack's boombox. I don't consider this book scary but the 1st 50% is setting the scene for the demon in this tale and really, it's simply pure teenage trauma and was hard to listen to at parts. If you have past trauma with bullying eating disorders, religious trauma or have issues with confrontations this book might be rough and once things get moving it really hurls towards the ending in a quick paced pile of events that will leave you sitting there going what the heck?

If you watched the movie 1st and are now reading the book they are not the same, the ending is completely different
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Elaborating to the trigger warnings above, the animal abuse includes the family dog, on page description of his death and the grief caused by it after. A Prominent side characters inclusion in the demons' plans included her being tricked that their pastor was in love with her and resulted in her attempted public suicide with partial nudity.  During the exorcism both girls are described as being touched inappropriately by invisible "demon" hands and can be triggering for those who have suffered from past Sexual Abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Eating disorder, Religious bigotry, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Tw: Alcohol, Animal death, Assault, Attempted murder, Attempted suicide, Blood, Cheating, Child abuse (physical, on page), Cults (mentions of satanic cults), Demons, Drug abuse, Eating disorders, Emesis (graphic), Gore, Hallucinations, Homophobia, Misogyny, Poisoning, Potential rape (accusations of and suggestion) Racist language, Self-harm, Sexism.

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

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

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

multiplyoctopi's review

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Rape

franksalot's review

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Eating disorder, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Drug use, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Racism, and Abortion

wongmel21's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Self harm, Sexism, and Classism

izzysbookshelf18's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia and Racism

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

geektastically's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a really interesting and well written book. You feel the inspiration but once you get to the later half of the book some of the content really got to me because of how well the relationships and characters were written. Be careful reading this for sure. I'm only giving it a lower score because the back half really shook me and I had a hard time with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Classism

redhothabanero's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

I wish we got more about their friendship at the beginning of the book. Gretchen gets possessed early on and so we don't get to see them be the kind of best friends that they are at the end of the book. Overall, it was fine but forgettable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism