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

This is my second time reading this book. I love it so much. Grady Hendrix really captures what it was like in the 80s: both the good and the bad. The heart of the story is the friendship between the two main girls. There are quiet a number of content warnings though so please check them before proceeding.

Content Warnings

emileeandherbooks's review

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dark

3.75

Intense, stressful, gross, very 80s, and a wee bit scary.

I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of the book! Grady is a totally tubular writer. I hate the word tubular. It makes me think of tubes. And noodles. And worms…which reminds me of what I’d like to mention next.

THIS BOOK HAS BODY HORROR. If that kind of crap makes you ill or damages your brain, DO NOT PARTAKE! Surprisingly I was okay, but wooweee, that was a lot of grossness in one book.

I really enjoyed getting to know Gretchen and Abby and their friendship. The ending had me all up in my feelings.

I do have a few gripes. The 80s references were so over-the-top for the first-half of the book. It was obnoxious. SHOW me you’re in the 80s, don’t tell me. Annoying!

Most of the friendships in this suck so bad and I really don’t like that. It’s exhausting.

The adults are extremely disappointing throughout the whole book.

It does take a while to get to the good stuff. But I didn’t mind the buildup.

Overall a good, exciting time!!!! Very intense and engaging. And even sometimes a little funny. Sometimes.

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laura_nel13's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25

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issymaae's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

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fanboyriot's review

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dark mysterious 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

Read For:

✓ Exorcism

✓ 80s Horror

✓ Teen Angst

✓ Childhood Trauma

✓ High School Setting

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

Had decent hope for this after watching the movie but the book was disappointing. While there were more details in the book, it overall felt a bit lackluster.

The build up dragged out for a bit longer than I would have liked. The set up started out good enough but when it came down to the actual plot it felt like we would always learn something we should have already known. And of course the dog death seemed unnecessary; it added nothing to the plot and felt too much like a last minute shock factor. Lastly, the ending was disappointing, all of that just for friends to drift away?

Spice Level: n/a

Angst Level: 💧💧

POV: Third Person

Release Date: 17, May 2016

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kirsty_irwin's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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elleyena_rose's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

2.5

I wanted to like this book. I really did. The pitch was promising, the cover and art inside are great (though some of the images are unreadable on kindle). I love 80s media like Heathers and all the songs in the book, and it's ultimately about the power of friendship (and that's one of the few things that caused me to boost my rating to 2.5 stars)

But some of the language and jokes at the beginning, while likely accurate for the time, weren't necessary to the plot and could/probably should have been cut. Thankfully that either dropped off quickly (or I just stopped noticing it when the descriptions got more graphic and I got ill while reading).

Just as some reviewers don't understand a rating less than five stars, I don't understand how anyone could rate it at a 4 or 5. This book ultimately wasn't for me.

Content Warnings

keroseberry's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Grady Hendrix does a great job here of writing a horror story about friendship. I wouldn’t say this book could be classified as scary, and not everything hits the mark, but it is a great tale of how life-sustaining and formative those rare childhood close friendships can be. I have to admit, I got a little emotional at the end. I really enjoyed this.

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