BOOK REVIEW: "My Best Friend's Exorcism" - Grady Hendrix (Quirk Books)

About My Best Friend's Exorcism

My Best Friend's Exorcism is written by Grady Hendrix. It was published by Quirk Books.

Synopsis: The year is 1988 and Abby Rivers has just started her sophomore year of high school in South Carolina. She is glad to have her best friend Gretchen Lang at her side, as they have been inseparable since they met at Abby's 10th birthday back in 1982. Gretchen was the only one to attend Abby's E.T.-themed birthday party at the skating rink and their friendship was cemented ever since.

Publisher: Quirk Books

Genre: Horror

Release date: May 17th, 2016

My Best Friend's Exorcism Review

Alright, so full disclosure, before I get into this review I want to point out that I had no idea this book spawned a movie and I’m glad I didn’t. Because, by the look of the actresses involved and the blatant TV movie aesthetic, I probably would’ve never read the novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism.

It was about three months ago, I was out with my wife shopping for graphic novels in Sydney-famous bookstore Kinokuniya (or however you spell it). Now, after picking up a veritable haul of Dark Horse and Image Comics trade paperbacks to add to my overflowing collection I came across their horror section with this book proudly displayed on their top shelf singing the praises of author Grady Hendrix. Who? I had no fucking idea. But the presentation of the cover alone was absolutely gorgeous. It looked like a neon-bright VHS tape with a design that looked battle-damaged and well loved. Having somehow survived the “video-stores-as-we-knew-them” wars. There was something about the front and the back cover that had so much going on. It was atmospheric with 1980s campy cheese, the creepy eyes of a possessed girl mesmerised you and the additive of video stickers promoted the kind of nostalgia felt only by an elder millennial or Gen-X tragic. So, after all that, did I buy it? No.

Fast forward to a couple days ago, as I browsed in a QBD chain bookstore (Aussies will know), and My Best Friend’s Exorcism stood out on the top shelf of the “General Fiction” section while Stephen King’s books had been demoted to the back-breaking bottom shelf. Finding this highly-fucking-amusing, I just had to purchase this Grady Hendrix book from the mainstream book bastards known as QBD whose staff weighed in with a “have you read this yet?” as I paid for it… yeah, ok lady.

Delving into My Best Friend's Exorcism and you'll find Grady Hendrix building out a world as driven by 80s pop culture as it is horror nostalgia. The main crux of the story being the friendship between two girls Abby and Gretchen, one adventurous and poor while the other is conservative and rich, who initially bond on their love for Steven Spielbierg's E.T. before their friendship leads them well into their teenage years.

With their friendship circle expanding to include the overtly privileged Margaret and her follower-friend, Glee, the four of them navigate the trappings of an over-the-top religious high school. The four of them, acting out for the first time, decide to take LSD at Margaret's house while her parents away, resulting in Gretchen disappearing into the woods for an entire evening, only to be found by Abby and the rest of the girls - forever changed.

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My Best Friend's Exorcism - Book Cover

Hendrix eventually reveals Gretchen has been possessed by a demonic entity who revels in the torture and manipulation of others. One that sees Abby ostracised from the group and almost expelled from school, Glee manipulated into thinking the young priest she has a crush on likes her back which causes her to go mad and Margaret into taking incredibly dangerous quantities of a drink which literally causes her to melt away into this anorexic and gaunt shell of her former self. There's also the drunken mess that Wallace, Margaret's boyfriend and jock, becomes but he's easily forgettable and even easier to hate.

With her life spiraling out of control and no-one believing that something has taken over Gretchen, Abby enlists the help of an exorcist to help rid Gretchen of the demon that dwells inside her. It's not the kind of exorcism you'd come to expect from movies like The Exorcist or even The Conjuring, but it is the scene that'll keep you power-reading the last few chapters - on the edge of your seat.

Hendrix does an incredible job of circumnavigating the nostalgia of teenage bullshit that we've all endured whilst pulling on a veritable smorgasbord of horror and nostalgia tropes to keep the reader curious, entertained and adequately horrified enough leading up the finale of an exorcism that, depending on your perspective, goes either horribly right or horribly wrong. The tone and pacing falls somewhere in the middle of a Stephen King or an R.L. Stine which is all the more reason why this novel needs to be celebrated. From hairspray to horror, there's an air of retro-soundtrack-brilliance to the writing, it screams hair-metal electric guitars and lip gloss, as much as creepy synth and demons.

My Best Friend's Exorcism is a story of friendship and adolescence, submerged in a pool of Americana, but not so much that you'll drown. Instead, you'll wade through Abby's feelings of deceit, mistrust, anxiety, and feeling alone. To come out on the other side with the epiphany "this is why I fell in love with horror in the first place!"

It doesn't matter how well the movie lands, it could never be this good.

My Kind Of Weird Score:

10/10