Reddit reviews My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel

Grady Hendrix has some great spooky books. He's one of my favorites. I HIGHLY recommend getting them in physical copies. Horrorstor is laid out like an Ikea catalog, My Best Friend's Exorcism's hardcover is like a yearbook from the 80's, and We Sold Our Souls has black edging on all the pages. Out of those three, WSOS is my favorite.

> like there was some obvious course correction from the pilot onwards

GOD, I KNOW! Can you imagine if they would have left Bellamy with that hair??

But honestly, I have a hard time really judging it because I didn't hate the pilot. I mean Troop Beverly Hills and Step Brothers are in my top 5 movies, so I'm not saying I'm a bastion of taste. For me the tropes that played out were 'oh look, terrible-no-good-very-bad-guy is actually not so terrible, in fact, he is very not terrible' and 'WOAH, surprise! awesome-hot-guy-who's-like-the-nicest-guy-ever-and-so-cool-and-independent -- record scratch -- nah he's a dick and instead of getting two girls he gets no girls'.

Like, remember how he was hoarding that bunker with supplies all to himself? And what was the point of those two guys dying on the dropship after they followed him? I think they may have actually planned that one out and it was just really subtle. I didn't think Finn was a dick at all the first time around! It wasn't until rewatch that it started to dawn on me. Like I don't think he was ever meant to be bad bad, just like not the hero. Ya, know?

>It just has one of those infuriating YA endings

I feel like YA books took a weird turn and are no longer like awesome adventure books?? Also slightly unrelated but, NA novels are the fucking WORST. I was so excited about YA books + real sex scenes, instead, they're all about stupid, trashy, unrelatable characters. Like wtf?

>backwards-ass "morals"

Weird! What were they? Was it about protecting your most precious flower?

>Or does Satan own a publishing company that sells teen fiction with pastel covers decorated with dead twigs?!

Still slightly unrelated, but I just read the book "My Best Friend's Exorcism" and totes recommend. Like it's a light read, but I totes balled my eyes out at the end because hashtag friendship.

>but it literally defeats the point of a timeloop to end the way it did

Okay, I feel like I can guess the ending from that and WAHT?!?! That's stupid. I feel like sometimes writers feel that they need to tell a 'unique' story, but twists and shocks are tools, they don't equate to better storytelling. When you wipe away all the details, every story has already been told on some level and it's not about trying to escape that, it's about using the right mix of ingredients to make something interesting.

[My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix] (https://www.amazon.com/My-Best-Friends-Exorcism-Novel/dp/1594748624/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469928953&sr=1-1&keywords=my+best+friend%27s+exorcism)

Summary: Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act . . . different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Thoughts: I really loved how low-key creepy this book was. It has major suspense in it, and horrifying detail that seriously disturbed me. One horror even involves a huge tapeworm and I was sick for hours after reading that scene. To top it all off, it's a homage to the 80s. Perfection in a recently published book.