My Best Friend's Exorcism: First Impressions | Review by Emily Shunk

My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix, I found through Marlow's review of the book here: https://litliteraturegang.blogspot.com/2019/11/my-best-friends-exorcism.html. It's a great review, I recommend you check it out if you want another opinion on the book!

As the title of this review suggests, these are my first impressions of the book. I am not very far into reading it- so bear in mind that this review does not have that much material to work with. However, so far I am impressed with this book's ability to transform the setting. When you first open the book, it's as if you're looking at a stranger's yearbook, as the cover page is stuffed with signatures and notes from the characters of the novel. The format of the cover page and the back page in itself is magical- it brings the story to life with a clever, and enticing strategy. When you read the story itself, its as though you're transported back to the 80s', and you can so easily picture the time period as it comes to life through the words on the page.

The novel starts off with Abby narrating the events of her birthday. She's alone on her birthday, no one having come to her E.T. themed birthday party- all of her classmates instead going to ride horses at Margaret's. Suddenly, a girl from her class shows up- a gift-wrapped children's bible in hand. The girl's name is Gretchen, and when Gretchen comes to comfort her in the bathroom stall, Abby has an epiphany: that this girl, Gretchen, was not a jerk like all the others. The night becomes the beginning of something new: a true friendship.

Over the years they become closer, and Abby's family slowly becomes poorer. In high school, they've added two new girls to their group, and they've become popular. One day, they're spending the day along the woods, when Margaret proposes that they all try LSD. She hands out the little paper squares, and they all let them disolve under their tongues. As the hours tick by they await the high to come in, the daylight fading away as their boredom increases. Gretchen decides to run out into the woods, determined to go skinny dipping even as the light leaves the sky. She disappears in the woods, and the others chase after her, the LSD finally kicking in. In the morning they finally find her, shaking and covered in mud.

I've so far read up to this point. So far, Hendrix has a great amount of detail that still keeps the story moving. The voice of the story is well crafted, and it matches the character crafted for Abby. I think the choice of having Abby narrate this story was well put, as it allows the story to have an interesting prospective to the events of the novel. So far, the book seems well crafted, especially as it deals with the time period as the setting. The book, as previously mentioned, makes you feel as though you're standing next to the characters as they go through high school in 1988. So far I'm very impressed with this book- and I definitely recommend it. I look forward to continuing reading this book.