Review: My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel

My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Closer to a 2.5.

What do you call a goofy period piece that doesn't bother with anything advertised in the plot until nearly the end? For me, it's My Best Friend's Exorcism, a book that let's you think you're getting a funny tale about an exorcism and ends up never quite pulling the trigger on any real aspect of the tale.

The story is about two girls in the 1980s. Best friends in everything until one of the girls starts acting different and it's decided that she's actually possessed by a demon, and she'll be the one to get it fixed.

What annoys me so much about this book is just the lost potential. There's such a great option to do an 80s-tastic Exorcist sendup, but nothing really comes about and the "is she or isn't she possessed" back-and-forth becomes kind of tiring as time goes on. The end almost certainly and completely rescues the book, as it gets truly insane, but the issue is ultimately getting to that point. It's just not engaging enough, which is especially unfortunate given Quirk's track record as a publisher.

Overall, skip this one unless this is a specific interest of yours. I hope we get a better book like it at some point in the future.

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