"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?”
My Best Friend's Exorcism is fun, glorious read. It falls
short of being great, though, and for some reason I cannot put my thoughts together
on exactly why this is. And while the book is about exorcism, about possession,
the core theme throughout is friendship. Here author Grady Hendrix excels at
recreating the 1980s –and in particular, 1988- and showing what friendship is
truly about.
As a supernatural horror story –which is more adult lit
than YA lit, so be aware- the final third of the book delivers –it will remind
many of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist novel and movie, as well as classic
scare-fest that was The Omen. But the heart and soul of the book is what
friends will do to help other friends. It is this theme that reminded me much of
The Body, the Stephen King short story that became the hit film Stand By Me. Here
we see two girls with an unbreakable bond (even if it carries the whiff of a
rich girl/poor girl trope) and one, Abby, who will stop at nothing to help her
best friend.
The final line in The Body could easily be applied here
(even if the girls are 16): “I never had any friends later on like the ones I
had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?”
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