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In the 80s, at a time of Satanic panic, "Just say no," casual bigotry, and intense class divides, Abby, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, becomes best friends with Gretchen, a rich girl from a cold and abusive home.
The two of them, plus two other girls, take LSD one night. Nothing much happens to three of them, but Gretchen runs off and is lost in the woods all night. When she's finally found, everyone is relieved... but she has no memory of the night. And then strange, horrible things start happening to her, things which everyone writes off according to whatever their own beliefs are. Only Abby, who loves her "dearly but not queerly" by their own catchphrase, knows something terrible is happening, and is determined to save her best friend.
The relationship between Abby and Gretchen, Abby's quest to save her, and the 80s setting are fantastic. There is some extremely scary stuff in there, plus some insect-related gross-outs so spectacularly disgusting that I skipped some pages and kind of wish I'd skipped more. There's also some frustrating plot and relationship loose ends, which I'll detail below the cut. Overall I enjoyed it a lot, but it's not as well-constructed as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. However, it does have the same page-turning quality: I read it in two gulps.
The edition I read has "multimedia" components, which are photos of random 80s objects (unnecessary and twee), plus reproductions of yearbook pages and pamphlets on SATAN (fun).
Warning for basically everything, including but not limited to period-accurate -isms, animal harm, and off-page sexual assault.
( Read more... )
My Best Friend's Exorcism
The two of them, plus two other girls, take LSD one night. Nothing much happens to three of them, but Gretchen runs off and is lost in the woods all night. When she's finally found, everyone is relieved... but she has no memory of the night. And then strange, horrible things start happening to her, things which everyone writes off according to whatever their own beliefs are. Only Abby, who loves her "dearly but not queerly" by their own catchphrase, knows something terrible is happening, and is determined to save her best friend.
The relationship between Abby and Gretchen, Abby's quest to save her, and the 80s setting are fantastic. There is some extremely scary stuff in there, plus some insect-related gross-outs so spectacularly disgusting that I skipped some pages and kind of wish I'd skipped more. There's also some frustrating plot and relationship loose ends, which I'll detail below the cut. Overall I enjoyed it a lot, but it's not as well-constructed as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. However, it does have the same page-turning quality: I read it in two gulps.
The edition I read has "multimedia" components, which are photos of random 80s objects (unnecessary and twee), plus reproductions of yearbook pages and pamphlets on SATAN (fun).
Warning for basically everything, including but not limited to period-accurate -isms, animal harm, and off-page sexual assault.
( Read more... )
My Best Friend's Exorcism
