Book Review: My Best Friend’s Exorcism

MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM | Grady Hendrix
05.17.2016 | Quirk Books
Rating: 4/5 stars

Abby and Gretchen are high school sophomores. They’re inseparable and have called each other best friends since Abby’s birthday party in 4th grade. One night the girls are hanging out with their close friends, Margaret and Glee, and everything changes between them. Gretchen ends up lost and alone in the woods and when she finally emerges, something is clearly wrong. Suddenly Gretchen is no longer herself. She’s started acting moody, has stopped taking care of herself, and strange incidents are starting to happen all around Gretchen.

I love you, Gretchen Lang. You are my reflection and my shadow and I will not let you go. We are bound together forever and ever! Until Halley’s Comet comes around again. I love you dearly and I love you queerly and no demon is bigger than this!

Abby has made it her mission to find out what has caused this drastic change with Gretchen. Convinced there is no way the night in the woods could do all of this to Gretchen, Abby makes the only logical conclusion and decides that Gretchen must be possessed. No one around Abby believes her. Just how far will Abby go to save her best friend?

She and Gretchen spent hours ranking their friendships, trying to determine who was a best friend and who was an everyday friend, debating whether anyone could have two best friends at the same time, writing each other’s names over and over in purple ink, buzzed on the dopamine high of belonging to someone else, having a total stranger choose you, someone who wanted to know you, another person who cared that you were alive.

MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM has been on my radar for quite a while now and when my birthday rolled around in April, I figured it was time to buy it! Well clearly I’m a distracted reader because it is now August. I’m actually glad I selected this one as a summer read because it was the perfect mixture of campy, 80’s loving nostalgia, and horror to transition my reads to the fall season.

Abby and Gretchen are living their best 80’s teenager lives! One of my favorite scenes has to be when they’re busted for hijacking Gretchen’s mom’s cross necklaces and dancing around to Madonna’s Like a Virgin. Pure perfection! Unfortunately, Abby and Gretchen’s friendship gets turned upside down. Gretchen is losing her mind and taking those around her down with her. After a series of strange and downright terrible happenings Abby decides her hunch that Gretchen is possessed is real and she must fight the demon inside her friend. Hendrix does a superb job of mixing the gross, creepy, funny moments together with a hefty dose of 80’s nostalgia to create a memorable read! If you haven’t already read this one, go buy a copy and put it on your immediate TBR!