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A review by peterplaysguitar
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
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? Yes
4.75
Recommended if you like: Possession/demonic horror; Theology vs. Psychology discussions; When Columbo does that “oh, one more thing” thing
Avoid if you dislike: Child violence; Vomit; Long chapters; the “C” word
Unless you’ve been strapped to a bed for the last 50 years, you’ll know that William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist has a legion of voices singing its praises. It’s for good reason. The novel achieves everything a horror author could hope to do—ramping tension, memorable, chilling scenes of terror, deeply-developed characters, expertly twisting plot—I could go on, but you get it. If you’re like me and have read other possession genre works such as Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts and Sara Gran’s Come Closer prior to this one, you’ll recognize a lot of similarities. However, all possession works since The Exorcist can be, at best, loving homages with an interesting wrinkle; such is the dominance and totality of Blatty’s work.
Blatty’s prose flips between beautiful and jarring with ease, expertly applied to guide the reader through tender, emotional character moments and hair-raising scares. The skepticism of Father Damian Karras provides an appropriate counterbalance to the seemingly inexplicable events, and the overarching “real or fake” mystery makes for an exciting plot that is mixed parts of medical drama, theological debate, and detective procedural. I was pleasantly surprised to find more ambiguity in this novel than the film adaptation, which lends itself well to the reader’s uncertainty and discomfort.
The psychological chess match between priest and child/demon is a twisting, thrilling ride that is on a constant crescendo. Blatty subtly tips one edge of the floor higher and higher until you cannot help but roll headlong toward his conclusion. Be forewarned: part of the way that Blatty achieves this sense of speed is by gradually lengthening the chapters and reducing breaks as the story nears the conclusion, so as to never give the reader a chance to lose momentum. If you need short chapters, you may want to come up with a strategy. As someone who typically only has time to read about 10-15 pages at a time, I struggled, but overall I still appreciated the strategy and thought it was effective.
If you haven’t read this horror classic yet, do yourself a favor and remedy that immediately. Don’t be like me and get lost in the many modern possession novels that are mere echoes of this archetypal work.
Avoid if you dislike: Child violence; Vomit; Long chapters; the “C” word
Unless you’ve been strapped to a bed for the last 50 years, you’ll know that William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist has a legion of voices singing its praises. It’s for good reason. The novel achieves everything a horror author could hope to do—ramping tension, memorable, chilling scenes of terror, deeply-developed characters, expertly twisting plot—I could go on, but you get it. If you’re like me and have read other possession genre works such as Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts and Sara Gran’s Come Closer prior to this one, you’ll recognize a lot of similarities. However, all possession works since The Exorcist can be, at best, loving homages with an interesting wrinkle; such is the dominance and totality of Blatty’s work.
Blatty’s prose flips between beautiful and jarring with ease, expertly applied to guide the reader through tender, emotional character moments and hair-raising scares. The skepticism of Father Damian Karras provides an appropriate counterbalance to the seemingly inexplicable events, and the overarching “real or fake” mystery makes for an exciting plot that is mixed parts of medical drama, theological debate, and detective procedural. I was pleasantly surprised to find more ambiguity in this novel than the film adaptation, which lends itself well to the reader’s uncertainty and discomfort.
The psychological chess match between priest and child/demon is a twisting, thrilling ride that is on a constant crescendo. Blatty subtly tips one edge of the floor higher and higher until you cannot help but roll headlong toward his conclusion. Be forewarned: part of the way that Blatty achieves this sense of speed is by gradually lengthening the chapters and reducing breaks as the story nears the conclusion, so as to never give the reader a chance to lose momentum. If you need short chapters, you may want to come up with a strategy. As someone who typically only has time to read about 10-15 pages at a time, I struggled, but overall I still appreciated the strategy and thought it was effective.
If you haven’t read this horror classic yet, do yourself a favor and remedy that immediately. Don’t be like me and get lost in the many modern possession novels that are mere echoes of this archetypal work.