rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2021-01-04 10:25 am
rachelmanija) wrote2021-01-04 10:25 am
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My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix
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.
I'm hard to scare via Christianity-based horror because I don't believe in Satan/demons, in a much more bedrock way than the way I don't believe in ghosts or vampires or other supernatural things. However, this book scared me with the idea of possession because the idea of being constantly touched by invisible hands is fucking terrifying no matter what's doing it.
THE TAPEWORMS UGH UGH UGH. I think that scene was physically impossible/wildly unlikely but I am not going to try to check.
Way before the night Gretchen got lost, she was talking to her long-distance boyfriend Andy, who she'd met at summer camp, every night. When Abby contacts him, he says he never heard from Gretchen since camp. I initially assumed that meant she'd actually been talking to the demon (aieee!) but Abby doesn't draw that conclusion and this is never mentioned again. What was up with that?
Abby and Gretchen had a catch-phrase "I love you dearly but not queerly." In Abby's exorcism, in her list of the things they share, she says, "I love you dearly AND queerly." This is never mentioned again or referred to in any way, and all Abby's later relationships we hear of are with men. I found this incredibly frustrating, as I actually did wonder from the first time I read that phrase if Abby also loved Gretchen queerly. I would have liked knowing that Abby was in fact queer even if her relationship with Gretchen was always platonic.
And finally, I was frustrated that Gretchen remembered so little of what happened. I was really curious about how she got picked by the demon and her own inner battle, and while I can extrapolate, I'd have liked to have gotten more of it from her.
And the murdered girl she was talking about, what happened to her? Overall I'd have liked more closure in plot matters - stuff was brought up and then just abandoned.
The exorcism itself was fantastic. The idea of conjuring by the things that are meaningful to you rather than whatever is by the book is not a new idea but it's one that I love, and it works really well here. I also really liked the exorcist - he was a surprisingly well-rounded and interesting character. And the very ending, with its unexpected sweep of time, was very moving.
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.
I'm hard to scare via Christianity-based horror because I don't believe in Satan/demons, in a much more bedrock way than the way I don't believe in ghosts or vampires or other supernatural things. However, this book scared me with the idea of possession because the idea of being constantly touched by invisible hands is fucking terrifying no matter what's doing it.
THE TAPEWORMS UGH UGH UGH. I think that scene was physically impossible/wildly unlikely but I am not going to try to check.
Way before the night Gretchen got lost, she was talking to her long-distance boyfriend Andy, who she'd met at summer camp, every night. When Abby contacts him, he says he never heard from Gretchen since camp. I initially assumed that meant she'd actually been talking to the demon (aieee!) but Abby doesn't draw that conclusion and this is never mentioned again. What was up with that?
Abby and Gretchen had a catch-phrase "I love you dearly but not queerly." In Abby's exorcism, in her list of the things they share, she says, "I love you dearly AND queerly." This is never mentioned again or referred to in any way, and all Abby's later relationships we hear of are with men. I found this incredibly frustrating, as I actually did wonder from the first time I read that phrase if Abby also loved Gretchen queerly. I would have liked knowing that Abby was in fact queer even if her relationship with Gretchen was always platonic.
And finally, I was frustrated that Gretchen remembered so little of what happened. I was really curious about how she got picked by the demon and her own inner battle, and while I can extrapolate, I'd have liked to have gotten more of it from her.
And the murdered girl she was talking about, what happened to her? Overall I'd have liked more closure in plot matters - stuff was brought up and then just abandoned.
The exorcism itself was fantastic. The idea of conjuring by the things that are meaningful to you rather than whatever is by the book is not a new idea but it's one that I love, and it works really well here. I also really liked the exorcist - he was a surprisingly well-rounded and interesting character. And the very ending, with its unexpected sweep of time, was very moving.
My Best Friend's Exorcism
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(also this is bugging me and I don’t want to look ahead! Vampire has just shown up called James Harris, which is the name Shirley Jackson used for her demon lover/devil character - does Grady mention this later?)
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no subject
Jackson used it because it's the name traditionally identified with the demon lover in the ballad of the same name. I don't know any folk versions that use the name in the text, but Michael Smith does in his contemporary retelling "Demon Lover."
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