My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix



October16 book for Avalon Muggles Book Club

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"A heartwarming story of friendship and demonic possession. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My Best Friend’s Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of ’80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller."

- Taken from Chapters

 

 

 

For my book club's spooky October book of the month, Avalon Muggles decided on My Best Friend's Exorcism. This book has been on my TBR since before it was released over the summer. It was my first novel by Grady Hendrix and it definitely will not be my last!
I LOVED this book.

Gretchen and Abby have such a strong, amazing friendship that made me feel so connected to them. I will never understand how they ever became friends with Margaret after what happened in fourth grade but throughout the book she did have some good moments. Glee is such a follower, she seemed to only live in Margaret's shadow and didn't seem to have much involvement, which was fine, she came off as a slightly annoying character. Together they seemed like a good group of friends but their loyalties weren't as a group, they just enjoy messing around together.

 

This book was classified at my local bookstore under Horror. I assumed that is based on the title of the book because it didn't strike me as a horror hide-under-the-bed-while-you-read type of novel but more of a heart racing thriller. It had a lot of funny, heartwarming and even sad moments as well as some slightly "gross" and intense chapters. The majority of the book I had no idea who I was more stressed for; Gretchen or Abby!

 

I loved this book so much it but there was one small reason I could not give it a perfect score. Specially on pages 77 and 222 there were mistakes, which messed up my flow reading because I became confused and didn't understand. When referring to Abby's parents, who are Mr. and Mrs. Rivers, both pages they were mentioned as Mr. and/or Mrs. Lang, which happens to be Gretchen's parents. This might not seem like a huge issue but it is a finished and published novel so this kind of character mistake twice was a little frustrating while reading as I had to stop and figure out if I was wrong what who had what surname.

 

With that mistake noted I hope future editions will be corrected and other readers will not have the same stumble reading as I did.

 

My best friend's exorcism has a very strong friendship and an amazing connection to the 80s. I highly recommend this read.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars