[Review] My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix

Summary: Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act . . . different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there's only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
(Pub Date: May 17th, 2016)

Thanks to Netgalley, this ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Abby and Gretchen have known each other since fifth grade and been the best of friends until one night when Gretchen jumps in a creek and disappears for hours until their group finds her close to a very weird construction in the woods. The next day, she's having flashbacks, hearing voices and with time, she can't sleep or clean herself. Although everyone walks away, Abby knows she has to protect her friend, no matter what had happened that day. She just didn't know the stakes when accepting the challenge.

Narrated in third person almost all from Abby's point of view, this focuses more on friendship than on horror. Someone had mentioned this in a review, and I thought it had to do with how beautiful the two girls' bond was but the author does focus more on it than on freaking the reader out. Which doesn't mean some parts didn't freak me out. I'm not big on horror, so I can't tell how original she was but the atmosphere following you through the story was certainly eerie. The narration style was endearing, nonetheless. I did think the 80's references were a little overdone. Maybe someone was a teenager in the 80's might have enjoyed it because I had this smile whenever she mentioned something with which I could identify myself. However, being the YA-genre, I would say she wasted time. We really didn't need so much proof they were in the 80's...

As I mentioned, horror isn't my favorite genre, as in I hardly read it, so it could be the reason I didn't like how much of the "scary" moments were plainly gross. The supernatural factor, for which I had the strongest expectations, was very light in the story. On the other hand, lots of the "devil possession" acts could have been performed by any (mean but still) human. In fact, that contributed to what gave me goosebumps the most, the way Abby's perfect social life crumbled could have happened even without any demons working against her.

I enjoyed reading, and I couldn't stop once I started. The style is nice and so is the story, for it doesn't take itself too seriously. It didn't give me nightmares, though; I was a little disappointed in that sector. I don't know if I liked the characters but I surely didn't hate them. The climactic scene wasn't bad, but a little weird. The ending itself was satisfactory, and yet I thought the author was too keen on having something sad happen. I won't give away what, of course, take this as a teaser and at the same time, know I wouldn't have done it the same way.

Also, this is not recommended to those who like animals. There were many dying right and left. There was one I couldn't agree with however expected it was.

Far from being a bad book, it stays around a 3.5. This was piercing and got me stuck but not exciting when delivering.

Rating: 4 out of 5.