A review by fillexfinale
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

5.0

Wow… this was so much more than I expected. I can completely see why it’s called the most terrifying novels ever written. It’s daring, dark, and deeply disturbing, especially for its time. My mom told me she remembered watching the movie in the 80s and it gave her nightmares for years. I feel the same! The book just brings a whole other aspect out. The writing is incredibly smart, poetic, and honestly a little hard to decipher in places (I had to reference a dictionary a few times 😅.. but context clues reading helped in a way.. but definitely need to have google ready to search up some words.), but that only added to the sense of unease.

Blatty has a way of making horror feel intellectual, existential, and spiritual all at once. It’s not just about demonic possession.. there’s grief, guilt, faith, doubt, and the raw, terrifying limits of human understanding. The imagery was so vivid, I could see every scene like a movie in my head, and the characters felt so real and desperate.

The exorcism itself was wild and intense, but what really got me was the emotional horror. The slow unraveling. The hopelessness. And then the ending… shocking, tragic, strangely beautiful.

It’s definitely a book that takes time to digest but absolutely worth it. A classic for a reason.
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