A review by vreyna20_2004
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

The story had potential but fell flat. Grady said he had the title planned and not the plot and you can tell by how slow it started and how fast pace it ended. The plot picks up 40% into the book. FOURTY PERCENT. And that’s only when Gretchen brings it up. It takes until page 254 or 56% for Abby to do anything. It’s fine when authors want to explain the backstory of things to get into detail about what is going on before we’re face into the issue, but 56%?? Seriously??? This book could’ve been cut in HALF if Abby had the BALLS to just ask her friend Gretchen what was going on with her but instead she didn’t. They’re high schoolers, yes I know that but seriously even that time kids were curious of things and had no filter. I’ve heard that the story was “a happy ending” but it left me unsatisfied. I wanted Margret to get dumped by Gretchen and Abby. I wanted Glee to come and for the girls to tell her off (she was as bad maybe more than Margaret) and I wanted a better ending for Christian Lemon. When he “confessed” to his crimes I was shocked I didn’t want him to do it but understood why he did it but for him to end up working as an instructor just felt unsatisfying. The story had potential and it fell flat. I would not forgive Grady for killing Max.

I’ve heard people saying how this is how they talked during the 80s and that it’s totally okay and that’s why they love this book. Grow up. Honestly. This book may take place in the 80s but the book was written in 2016. If you can’t do the math I’ll help you, that’s 7 years ago. And the author (a WHITE CIS-MALE mind you) wrote this book should’ve been my first red flag but it was free to hear so I didn’t mind it. Besides the whole fetishization of Abby’s father’s part with having a big black woman on a vhs tape, the school having a “slave day”, Abby and Gretchen having to say “Dearly But Not Queerly” just to say they love each other, the casual mention of slurs, and the purity talk (I don’t mind this since everyone had the right to choose when to sleep with someone), and worst of all the blackface. Also some people on Goodreads are saying that cancel culture is gonna cancel this book. No one is saying that they’re canceling Grady for writing this. The issue is him contributing into it and using the excuse of “we did this back in the day” well this was written 7 years ago he knew not to put the r-slur in the book but he did. He also knew not to put the over sexualization of a black women (which thanks to porn is still happening). The reason why people bring such topics up in their reviews is to warn others to not read this if they don’t want to. And I haven’t seen a page in the book with trigger warnings. I only found out because of tiktok that this would happen.

But besides all that, the one thing that made me not give this not even a 2.50 rating was the fact that Christian Lemon confessed to the crimes and that Good Dog Max died. I would never forget Grady Hendrix.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings