Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

31 reviews

peskilanim's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Excrement, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Body horror, Rape, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Drug use

kellygracejackson's review

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Body horror, Eating disorder, Excrement, Sexual assault, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Violence, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

kaitrenwick's review

dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Eating disorder

Moderate: Suicide and Rape

alliethegator's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.25

AAAHHHH why did I love this book so much? I've been meaning to dip my toe back in the horror genre for a long time, and this was a really good re-introduction.

Our main character, Abby, is such a determined, mature human being for only being 16. Her and Gretchen's story make me want to hug my friends so much, and maybe even go back in time to apologize to my highschool friends for being a horrible teen. I managed to lose 90% of my highschool friends, and I wasn't even possessed by a demon.

Also none of the parents in this story literally gave a single damn about their children and that just made me really nostalgic (in a bad way).

It did have its flaws: I do feel like the writing wasn't necessarily anything special, the pacing was rather slow, and it read like a teenage drama, but it was so easy to let all of that go when I reached the end. 4.25 easy no take backs

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, and Animal death

ynadavis's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

0.5

If you catch me reading another Grady Hendrix, book, please assume that *I've* been possessed.

Like it's so easy to compare him to Riley Sager in the men using androgynous names to write exclusively female main characters club but at least Sager doesn't include discussion of sexual violence against literal children in all* of his books?

* Don't come at me if it's not ALL of them, this is book three of three at this point and I'm over it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit

Minor: Lesbophobia, Animal cruelty, Death, Alcohol, Suicide, Bullying, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Slavery

iloponis's review

fast-paced

5.0

i ripped through this and adored it. i fucking loved it. baffled how a male author can capture girlhood and female friendships so well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Eating disorder, Suicide, Gore, Self harm, and Vomit

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

lizziaha's review against another edition

2.75

Ultimately, the focus on Abby and Gretchen’s friendship is this book’s saving grace. Some aspects of the horror were well-done as well, but I was annoyed that some things seemed to be put in for pure shock value, without ever being explained. This was also slightly more low-stakes than I expected it to be. And I disliked Hendrix’s cavalier bigotry for the sake of the “authentic” setting (the south in the 80s). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Slavery, Sexual assault, Ableism, Abortion, Child abuse, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Racism, Sexual violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Homophobia

thenarwhaltoday's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault

joscelynhe's review

emotional reflective 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

4.5

I’m so glad I decided to read more Grady Hendrix after last year. I really enjoyed Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and after reading another of his novels I can tell he has a very unique, fun writing style that I can’t get enough of. It’s absurd, classic horror that never feels like too much or too little.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Animal death, Vomit, Gaslighting, Death, Body horror, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Eating disorder