by Grady Hendrix
Best enjoyed if you’ve ever been a teenage girl and understand how that feels.
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“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?”
REVIEW:
I’ve previously read Hendrix’s Horrorstör and I highly recommend it. However, I’ll also be adding this one into the Highly Recommended Horror category.
This book is about Abby and Gretchen above all else. A friendship that couldn’t be conquered, two inseparable girls on their walk through high school. However, after one ill-fated night at a friend’s, something changed drastically for them, and you can guess what it is from the title. This book is about their friendship and loyalty and the lengths to which a true friend will go to save you from whatever darkness may come to be in your life—or in you.
In natural Hendrix fashion, this book finds places for lightness in dark material and takes itself very seriously without taking itself too seriously. I really felt for Abby through this whole thing. If you’ve ever been a teen girl or have been made to feel like an outsider, you will totally get why I call this book Next Level Horrifying. It definitely tapped into all my teenage insecurities and fear of being left outside again. It also delves into body horror and betrayal and the other fears that affect us every day. Hendrix has his finger surprisingly on the pulse of what it means to be a teenage girl and the lengths that some of us will go to fit in. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it definitely tapped into some deep seated fear and resentment I had growing up. I saw myself in Abby. I’ve had friendships that I would literally fight for in the same ways.
I’ve had this book on my shelf for over a year, always wanting to pick it up and read it, but I had a feeling that it would happen. I would get so involved in this book I wouldn’t be able to put it down. And I wasn’t wrong. It was so good, so scary, and so full of mysteries that my curious mind needed answers for. We all can tell from the title that an exorcism takes place, which obviously means ‘demon’, but watching the dawning horror in our heroine’s mind as she slowly discovered what was really going on was a deliciously satisfying journey. And despite what happened to her, she kept fighting for her friends even when she was being sabotaged and tormented in whatever ways the being that was wearing her bestie as a skin suit could without giving themselves away. Now, whether or not she triumphed is not something I am going to reveal here. I’ve read and enjoyed plenty of books where the ending doesn’t work out the way I wanted it to that I still recommend to this day because heartbreak is a part of life. You’ll need to read that for yourself.
If you are in the mood for some good fast-paced horror full of friendship and fight, pick this up asap.
Always Lost in Words 