My Best Friend's Exorcism
Ratings250
Average rating3.9
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix is a nostalgic trip to hell and back with best friends, walkmans, and New Coke. It is as fun as the title suggests.
“She could decide how she was going to be. She had a choice. Life could be an endless series of joyless chores, or she could get totally pumped and make it fun. There were bad things, and there were good things, but she got to choose which things to focus on. Her mom focused only on the bad things. Abby didn't have to.”
― Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend's Exorcism
I remember the 1980s. I remember E.T., legwarmers, tall gravity-defying hair, and the mall. I have a picture from 5th grade that is spectacular. All that feels very far away now, as it is 2021. But, just for a moment, Grady Hendrix transported me back to my childhood for a wild ride.
My Best Friends Exorcism follows two best friends Abigail and Gretchen, from the inception of their friendship, during the 4th grade when Gretchen gave Abigail a bible for her birthday at an E.T. themed roller rink party, through High School when their friendship gets much hazier and is tested by literal demonic influence. Abigail, the book's protagonist, sees life as a before and after. Before Gretchen, and after. The two of them are inseparable. But, after a wild night in a forest with tabs of LSD, Gretchen comes back... different. At first, Abigail can't figure it out and blames benign things. But there is something dark in the heart of her best friend, and she is the only one who can save her.
“Corn dogs,” the exorcist said, “are all the proof I need that there is a God.”
― Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend's Exorcism
I have an almost identical set of friendships with a couple of girls I grew up with. We did many of the things that Abigail and Gretchen did. I remember one of my best friends doing the entire dance from Thriller in a parking lot, seriously. She is amazingly talented. But, I know that people who go through school have friends like this. At any era. The details might be different, but at heart, the feelings are the same. Some people come into your life and help shape you. They help make you into the person you are going to be. Sometimes they stay for a while, and sometimes they last for a lifetime. But they remain in your heart. These connections are the strings that Grady Hendrix plucks when you read this novel.
What I am saying here is that although this book spoke to me on a very, very specific level. It will resonate with just about anyone who reads it. Because, while the era is different, the relationship is the same. Abigail and Gretchen love each other, a particular kind of love made of pinky swears and lifetime promise. Promises that will probably fall away as age and responsibilities change the nature of their lives. But, promises and intention none-the-less. And Abigail is going to save Gretchen, even when she doubts her sanity and even if she dies trying.
Also, this is a horror novel. It has exorcism in the title, so very graphic and horrifying things happen. But it is told in a Grady Hendrix-type way that balances the narrative and horrific elements with fun and comedic things. He balances light and dark moments, so much so that, at times, you let your guard down as a reader. Then kaboom, something scary that reminds you that there is something seriously wrong with Gretchen.
The characters are very well developed. I enjoyed learning about all of them, even the supporting characters. If this were an 80s horror movie, many of them would have probably been sliced and diced by Jason Voorhees by now. Instead, Grady gives them a different sort of treatment. We get to know them and watch how Grady twists the proverbial knife in their lives. It is very well done.
My Best Friend's Exorcism is a stand-out book with dark and twisted moments of humor that will appeal to almost any reader. Think Stranger Things mixed with The Exorcism all to the soundtrack of 1980s Madonna. It is entertaining as hell, especially if you enjoy a sprinkling of pop-culture references. I am finding Hendrix's entire catalog entertaining thus far. My Best Friend's Exorcism is the third Hendrix book I have read, the first being Horrostor followed by We Sold Our Souls. I have plans to read two more in 2021. You really can't go wrong with his books.
There is a very annoying thing that happens when some people realize that they have unwittingly enjoyed a piece of horror fiction - they try to convince themselves and everyone else that it's not really horror. “It's really about a family struggling!” “It's about mental illness!” “It's about friendship!” It's horror. Those things are all horror. Like every genre, horror is the backdrop on to which a variety of different kinds of stories are told. However, horror is uniquely equipped to talk explicitly and ferociously about one thing in particular - what scares us. It's where we unabashedly explore the terror, violence and agony of family, friendships, technology, strangers, love, loss, trauma, you name it. And yes, high school is terrifying. Loving your best friend more than you've loved anything on earth is terrifying. And being a girl who dares to see things as they are, not as she's been told to, is quite possibly the most horrifying thing in this world.
Abby and Gretchen have been inseparable since the day Abby had a birthday party and Gretchen was the only one who showed up. It is the eighties, Satanic Panic and Reaganomics are the ever present background radiation of their world, and they are the upper crust of an elite Southern Catholic school. Abby is the poor scholarship kid and Gretchen the rich girl with uber religious parents, while their two other friends, Margaret and Glee, round out their high-achieving preppy girl squad. And then an experiment with LSD goes wrong. And then Gretchen begins dissolving and lashing out, and then changes entirely and then Abby is suddenly standing on the outside as her life as things begin spiraling out of control. Abby's only care in the world, outside of her social status and her own image, has been Gretchen Lang, and she finally realizes that she may have to give up everything to save her best friend from what has clearly taken control of her - a demon.
I am a big fan of demonic possession stories, but they typically fall into a particular pattern. This is because they depend heavily on certain mythology - that there are sentient, evil supernatural creatures that can take control of one's body against one's will, and that the only way to cast them out is by calling on a higher power. There's usually a lot of shouting involved. Exorcism movies often remind me of action films that inevitably end with muscly guys throwing buildings at each other. Like, is this the best we can do in the face of evil? Make loud noises and throw things? How come the best exorcism I ever saw on screen was in the opening scene of Constantine, and I have never seen anything like that again?
Without giving too much away, I can say that My Best Friend's Exorcism uses those known tropes while also drastically subverting them in exactly the way I wanted to see. The way Hendrix takes the idea of the exorcist and the hip youth pastor and smooshes them together into a Jesus-talking pop culture abomination that also serves also an commentary on religious institutions and toxic masculinity? Goddamn. And the moment Abby realizes the power she individually has to save Gretchen? It's perfect. It's absolutely on point. Because an exorcism is not just a religious rite - it's a spell. And as any witch will tell you - you can charge a spell any way you want. Even with The Go-Gos.
My Best Friends' Exorcism is not relatable teen content for teens (it's too hyperaware of what kind of people teenagers really are to really be appropriate, I mean I'm sure some will enjoy it, but I think it will mean more to adults), nor is it pure 80s nostalgia cash grab. It's an exploration of the horror of being a teenage girl. It puts a magnifying glass to our youth, our insecurities, the things we allowed ourselves to believe and turns it all into a paranormal nightmare. The pacing is so good its almost precise. I knew that when I sat down on my lunch break I would be able to read two chapters in twenty minutes and those two chapters would be barn burners. It takes the tropes of a horror movie - ticking off hapless teens until there is a final girl left - and again twists it. Instead of centering the narrative around a single person at a time, you are with Abby as she helplessly watches the systematic destruction of the people around her. Hendrix uses body horror, psychological horror, and straight up spooky demon shit to create a suffocating atmosphere that is pure genre. Yes, this book has pink details on the cover and 80s references and satirical humor, but it is scary as shit, make no mistake. It's scary because it does not look away. It does not look away from a body wasting a way, from a mind violated, from the oppression of not being believed, from having your life distorted to meet someone else's ends, from being in love and afraid you're going to fail.
I loved this. It's probably the best October selection I've made in years, and I'm glad I ignored the reviews that said “it isn't really horror.” This book is colorful and satirical and deeply touching, but yes it is horror. It is the definition of horror.
Compulsively readable, suspenseful, disturbing, ultimately touching, and on a couple memorable occasions, absolutely disgusting. So, great horror novel!
I'm not sure if this will resonate with everyone as much as it did with me. It was pretty much a bulls-eye as far as my nostalgia target goes - girl friendship set against high school in the late '80s. But the characters are drawn so well, and the relationship set up so poignantly and believably, I think anyone could get invested in this story.
If the supernatural story doesn't quite hang together for me, I have to say the allegory remains rock-solid: when you're friends in grade school, sometimes the changes that hit during middle and high school can seem like your friend is suddenly possessed. The exaggerated and fictionalized story of actual demon possession cleverly mines the more mundane realities of teen friendships and their challenges.
And as far as the face-value story, Hendrix kept me guessing throughout the climax. I really couldn't imagine how he was going to wrap things up, and ultimately I like how he handled it.
I'll have to let the nonfiction Paperbacks from Hell satisfy my craving for more Hendrix for now, but the next novel he publishes will be at the top of my reading list for sure!
yeah the weird comment about looking ethiopian stuck more than some plot points
Grady Hendrix is very good at taking mundane everyday things and giving them a comical horror twist. My Best Friend's Exorcism takes a high school friendship where one of them undergoes a massive personality change, turning into a full on mean girl and trashing her relationships, after a skinny dipping incident goes wrong and she gets lost in some woods near a creepy house. The implication is that there is a possession, but there is actually still a fair amount of ambiguity in the way the story is told.
Hendrix has a lot of fun playing with the typical horror and high school friendship tropes. The result is an entertaining romp through a darkly comic high school horror. Very entertaining!
It's a supernatural horror story, and the third act drives that home without mercy, but at its core, this is a story about friendship, and I'm glad I read it. I loved all the 80s references throughout the book. So many fun and exciting spooks! While being entirely wholesome at the same time.
I loved this book. This is my third Grady Hendrix book and my favorite so far. I couldn't put it down.
Tense, disturbing, and surprisingly sweet? It's an excellent 80's-set horror story, with some memorable and scary scenes, but the core of the story is the friendship between Abby and Gretchen. It definitely elevates this from just entertaining pulp horror to something that's more interesting than you'd expect. Really good stuff!
Gen-Xers and anyone interested in 1980's pop culture would probably have a blast reading this book. Maybe more so for those of us who grew up in the times since there is a certain feeling of nostalgia and irony about the setting. It was more entertaining than say, Ready Player One, because the music/movie mentions are blended in naturally with the story.
Hendrix uses horror conventions to tell stories about relationships and people. There was plenty of drama and tension; it was hard to put it down. It is similar to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires in the sense that the main character is ostracized, and it deals with similar themes of hypocrisy, conformity, and judging others by their financial class.
The story contains the usual teenage angst and adolescent struggles, as well as a heart-warming (though highly idealized) take on friendship.
I am proclaiming October the (unintentional) month of Grady Hendrix since I ended up borrowing this novel from the library, after having loved both versions of the cover for a while, as well as having started another book by him last week, and never mentally putting the 2 books together as having the same author. (One version is the yearbook page, with the girl turned away, and the other looks like an old videotape cover.)And every time I did focus on the author name I thought it sounded familiar. I finally realized I'd reviewed a book by him years ago for a site I used to work for. The book was a satirical novel called [b:Satan Loves You 11261906 Satan Loves You Grady Hendrix https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333896441s/11261906.jpg 16188715], and I loved it, with it's feel of Good Omens and Christopher Moore. So, it really makes sense that I loved My Best Friend's Exorcism, with the fun covers, and the mock ups of 80s ads, news articles, etc. The book was schlocky, funny, and creepy, but the characters weren't sacrificial as they often are in horror, and by that I mean they were real, fleshed out characters as opposed to bags of blood to sacrifice for gross outs and scares. The friendship of Abby and Gretchen, from its beginning on, felt real. The 80s references were deep and on point. And if you happened to be a teen girl back then, it feels like you're transported back to that time. Okay, I'll admit I cried at the end. The end of the occasionally schlocky horror novel. Because, yeah. Lastly, there's a dog in the book. The horror novel. You know where this is going. The dog dies, like they almost always do in horror, and often we get to imagine the dog's feelings of confusion as the person they love betrays them. I respect the effectiveness of this in horror novels -- the demon/serial killer/vampire means business. But at the point when the reader knows with 98% accuracy this will happen when there is a pet in the book, it might be time to do something else. Call me a nutbag animal lover, but as much as I love horror, this trope is the #1 reason I read so little of it. And, yeah, I know I need to take this up with a therapist. Anyhow, Grady Hendricks is a very good writer, as I found out and then forgot years ago, and I can't wait to really delve into [b:Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s 33670466 Paperbacks from Hell A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s Grady Hendrix https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504436657s/33670466.jpg 54542087]!
Read for Summerween 2021 - Read a paranormal book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0XJfa0dAU
While I don't think this in no way a bad book, I just found it a bit boring at times and I wanted even more 80s vibes. I really didn't connect to the friendship themes in this which is why it probably didn't get a high rating from me, but I do think they were written well so I understand why others connect to it. I did enjoy this book but it just wasn't necessarily for me.
I was drawn to this book based on how much I love the cover and the premise got me so excited.
I am so sad that I was let down by this when I had such high hopes. It had such great potential.
However, I couldn't get past the offensive and disgusting moments that were in this book that had no reason to be featured apart from what I can assume shock value.
The “dearly but not queerly”, the mentioning of the slave auctions that apparently American high schools used to do (first of all why was this ever a thing?) and the main character saying someone thin and unwell looks “Ethiopian”.... None of these things added anything to the plot and could have been edited out altogether and I wish it was!
On top of that, the exorcism? I think I actually had to stop reading for a moment and just stare at a wall because while I understand they were trying to say it was their love for one another that helped Gretchen pull through, I think it was so cringy.
I am usually not a hater and it takes a lot for me to get to that place but I am too disappointed that this didn't end up the fantastic read that I thought it was going to be. I'm giving two stars purely because I think this had such great potential.
As much a coming of age story as it was an exorcism one, the former actually being the most compelling part of the book. Come for the exorcism, stay for the friendship!
Everyone loves this. But I just did not fall into that camp unfortunately. I liked it well enough that I'd easily grab another Hendrix book but I do not like reading about parents or authority (like cops, or teachers) gaslighting and/or straight up ignoring the problems of their own kids or within their communities. I know it to be true experiences when kids can't rely on their parents or adults in their lives for help but it's too blech for me to read about.
I do hope to read more from Hendrix in the future and hopefully find a novel that I enjoy more from him :)
This was pretty fun. Picked it up at a used book store because I loves the retro cover, worth a read for the 80s nostalgia and horror vibes. Wish it had pushed further into the darker elements, there were a couple of plotlines that seemed like they were really going dark only to veer away at the last moment, which was not really what I was expecting in a horror novel.
2.5–it really didn't work and I thought we would have a lot more time in the present instead of just going over what happened in the past.
The thing with Grady Hendrix is that he always tells you the situation in the title. What it says is 100% what is happening. There is no actual doubt about supernatural events really happening or creatures really existing.
But his genius is in the fact that through the characters you still start doubting it. The events play out through a long time and so much of it is entangled with perfectly normal, everyday events that you will doubt yourself like the characters do.
Abby and Gretchen are best friends. Sure, Abby is poor and Gretchen is rich, but they still end up at the same fancy school (Abby through a scholarship) and they bond. For a time they are at the top of the food chain with their other two friends, Margaret and Glee, being cool and pretty and just doing all the things the right way.
Then one night, while they are trying supposed LSD at Margaret's weekend house... something happens to Abby. Something they assume is a horrible and ordinarily non-supernatural thing. But then things just get too weird to be a simple case of trauma.
The thing about Grady Hendrix is that so far, all of the books I have read by him were based around nostalgia and retro, but he approaches those things so great. Many times I feel those books try too hard and they also over-explain; they point out the references and why those things matter. Here we just get told about those things like they are natural. If you know, you know. I think that's the right way to do it, so it's not boring for the people who know, but the rest can still google those things, right? It just flows better.
His friendships are interesting as well. He never seems to pretend that friendships are always going great and they are perfect. In that way, he is much more realistic about human relationships, even if all his books seem to be about supernatural things. People aren't always kind.
Now, I will say, I don't think this is his best book, mostly because I prefer adult characters, but as far as teen ones go, they are pretty solid.
This book delivers a spine-tingling blend of friendship and horror that keeps you hooked from start to finish.