Synopsis: When a ten-year-old Abby throws a birthday party at the local roller rink she is excited to celebrate with all her classmates. But only one person comes, the new girl Gretchen Lang. From that day forward the two are inseparable best friends. Fast forward to high school the girls are hanging out with their friends. Late at night Gretchen becomes lost in the woods and when she emerges the next morning she’s not herself anymore. As Gretchen’s behavior grows increasingly strange Abby is the only one willing to lose everything to save Gretchen from evil.

My Opinion: Wow, what an enjoyable book to read! It felt like I was reading a movie, if that makes sense. The characters and descriptions were so vivid I could picture everything that was happening on the page. The overarching theme of My Best Friend’s Exorcism is exploring how much you would go through to keep a friend. The story mainly centers on four girl friends navigating high school. These characters behave in such disgusting ways to one another that I felt like I was back in high school being bullied. Overall, I think this is a fantastic book. 

I do have a couple of complaints, and these are 100% my own preference. The first thing that peeved me was animal cruelty. Good Boy Max is Gretchen’s loveable but dumb dog. He routinely gets into trash and spreads it all over the neighbor’s lawn. Throughout the second half of the story Good Boy Max is used as a plot device to further Gretchen’s character in a way that I couldn’t forgive. Though I believe that was the point of including it.

The other qualm is the depiction of the exorcism itself. Although the exorcist character was quick to call it a deliverance and not an exorcism, there are still basic rules within Christianity that a person would follow in the deliverance. When Abby gets a turn she bucks all tradition  and calls upon the power of Madonna, a can of Coca-Cola, and other shared experiences between Gretchen and Abby. Again, I understand that reason for doing this, but wish Abby’s involvement could have been a bit more “by the book” as support for the exorcist. 

I’m going to include a few trigger warnings for those who may not read horror. If you’re squeamish about any of these things you want to give this book a pass, or send me your questions and we can talk. 

Triggers:

Rape

Animal Abuse/Animal Death

Drugs/Alcohol

Abuse