My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Horror Review

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by author Grady Hendrix

I’m going to be totally honest with you here. I 100% only read this book because of the cover. It’s a spectacular cover design and if there’s an award for cover designs that person should win it.

If it wasn’t for that cover I would never have picked this book up and my life would be about the same as it was before. I didn’t find a new favorite book. But I also didn’t get so annoyed I had to tell anyone who would listen about it. It was just pretty okay.

If you’re a fan of 80s nostalgia jerk-offs like Stranger Things and Ready Player One then you should try this one out. But that’s mostly all it is. The writing is simple and the plot is simple. There are also photo pages that absolutely add nothing to the book but page length. Yes, thank you for showing me what a telephone looks like, really needed that help.

My favorite thing about the book is the friendships. It’s important to see two friends grow together to fully understand why one would be loyal to the other. Without the bond formed from such a young age and over so many years and experiences it would be completely unbelievable that one would save the other from a demon possession.

Because as is the case with literally every demon possession story, demon possession makes you a raging bitch. But with their friendship I could see the pain of seeing your friend going through hell and not being able to help them. I could see needing to help in even extremely drastic ways. And I could understand never stopping fighting for them even when everyone doubts you.

That’s the part of the book that makes it worth reading. A strong female friendship bound through shared traumas and joys alike.

Speaking of traumas, the book has some solid scary scenes. Some of the descriptions are truly grotesque and I love that. I could really picture the scenes and feel like a witness to the horror.

The book has an additional bonus of a great ending, so rare! The ending is grounded and focuses on the power of love over the power of religion. All of my friends have done way more for me than god ever has and this book reflects that.

It’s a quick horror read that checks most of the boxes. I can see why some people might really enjoy this book. I think younger, about high school age, readers could really get into it.

Can recommend to genre fans, younger audiences, and anyone looking for a strong female friendship in their novels.

Update: since originally writing this book review the novel has been picked up to be adapted into a movie. It’s scheduled to release September 2022.

3/5 owls 🦉🦉🦉

For an even better, indie horror novel check out Rave.

in order to keep me up to my ears in books please consider using the following amazon affiliate link to purchase this product. it’s at no extra cost to you and would really help me out, thank you and happy reading!

Buy it here: My Best Friend’s Exorcism: A Novel