My Best Friend's Exorcism

by Grady Hendrix

Overview

Soon to be a major motion picture.

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying
Vampires, this unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist blends teen angst and unspeakable horrors into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.

The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594749766
Publisher:	Quirk Publishing
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	7,270
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Grady Hendrix is an award-winning and New York Times best-selling novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which is being adapted into a feature film by Amazon Studios), We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and The Final Girl Support Group. Grady also authored the Bram Stoker Award–winning nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell and These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World.

Read an Excerpt

The exorcist is dead.
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "My Best Friend's Exorcism"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Grady Hendrix.
Excerpted by permission of Quirk Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Editorial Reviews

One of Town & Country’s 50 Best Horror Books

“National treasure Grady Hendrix follows his classic account of a haunted IKEA-like furniture showroom, Horrorstor (2014), with a nostalgia-soaked ghost story, My Best Friend’s Exorcism.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Take The Exorcist, add some hair spray and wine coolers, and enroll it in high school in 1988 — that’ll give you My Best Friend’s Exorcism...Campy. Heartfelt. Horrifying.”—Minnesota Public Radio

“Clever, heartfelt, and get-under-your-skin unnerving.”—Fangoria 

“A touching story of high school friendship and, well, demonic possession.”—Bloody Disgusting
 
“Terrific...Sharply written...[My Best Friend’s Exorcism] makes a convincing case for [Hendrix’s] powers as a sharp observer of human behavior, filtered through a fun genre conceit that doesn’t skimp on the spooky—or the bodily fluids.”—The A.V. Club
 
“My Best Friend’s Exorcism is perfectly spooky, catty fun while simultaneously bringing forth a greater message about friendship, religion, self-image, and the undeniable power of Phil Collins.”—Collider

“Think Mean Girls with demonic possession, set in 1988 Charleston. It’s funny, it’s heart-wrenching, it’s even a little spiritual, in a very strange way.”—Southern Living magazine
 
“The perfect mix of '80s nostalgia and scares.”—POPSUGAR

“My Best Friend’s Exorcism has the same throwback vibes [as Stranger Things] and a vintage-looking cover to boot.”—Reader’s Digest

“This book packs all the magic of a summer horror flick.”—Bustle

“If you’re looking for a good summer book, something for the beach or the back porch that won’t insult your intelligence, one that’s tense and sometimes scary and sometimes funny, with characters you may even come to like and admire as they come of age, keep My Best Friend’s Exorcism in mind.”—SFFWorld

More praise for Grady Hendrix:
“Pure, demented delight.”—The New York Times Book Review, on Paperbacks from Hell

“Horrorstör delivers a crisp terror-tale...[and] Hendrix strikes a nice balance between comedy and horror.”—The Washington Post, on Horrorstör

“Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.”—Booklist, starred review, on We Sold Our Souls

“A true appreciation of the genre.”—Los Angeles Times, on Paperbacks from Hell

“An inventive, hilarious haunted house tale.”—Bustle, on Horrorstör
 
“A good, creepy, music-tinged thriller.”—CNET, on We Sold Our Souls

From the Publisher

03/15/2016
In 1982, Abby met Gretchen at her bomb of a birthday party, and they have been best friends ever since. Now high school sophomores, they spend their time as most 16-year-olds do in Charleston, SC: listening to music and sneaking smokes and Bud Lite. After a night of lame acid and skinny-dipping turns horrible, Gretchen begins to act differently—very differently. Mood swings may be common for teenage girls, but Abby fears Gretchen's condition is much more than that. Abby can't get anyone to believe that there is anything wrong with Gretchen, so she digs into what could have altered her friend's personality. When the truth comes to light, it is greater than teen angst, peer pressure, or popularity—it is the work of the devil. VERDICT Hendrix (Horrorstör) brings his blend of dark humor and horror back in this perfect balance of teenage dread and supernatural thrills. Readers who lived through high school in the 1980s may dredge up old memories of big hair and stirrup pants, which will be frightening in itself. [Five-city tour; previewed in "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/16.]—KC

Library Journal

2016-03-02
The wonder of friendship proves to be stronger than the power of Christ when an ancient demon possesses a teenage girl. Hendrix was outrageously inventive with his debut novel (Horrorstör, 2014) and continues his winning streak with a nostalgic (if blood-soaked) horror story to warm the hearts of Gen Xers. "The exorcist is dead," Hendrix writes in the very first line of the novel, as a middle-aged divorcée named Abby Rivers reflects back on the friendship that defined her life. In flashbacks, Abby meets her best friend, Gretchen Lang, at her 10th birthday party in 1982, forever cementing their comradeship. The bulk of the novel is set in 1988, and it's an unabashed love letter to big hair, heavy metal, and all the pop-culture trappings of the era, complete with chapter titles ripped from songs all the way from "Don't You Forget About Me" to "And She Was." Things go sideways when Abby, Gretchen, and two friends venture off to a cabin in the woods (as happens) to experiment with LSD. After Gretchen disappears for a night, she returns a changed girl. Hendrix walks a precipitously fine line in his portrayal, leaving the story open to doubt whether Gretchen is really possessed or has simply fallen prey to the vanities and duplicities that high school sometimes inspires. He also ferociously captures the frustrations of adolescence as Abby seeks adult help in her plight and is relentlessly dismissed by her elders. She finally finds a hero in Brother Lemon, a member of a Christian boy band, the Lemon Brothers Faith and Fitness Show, who agrees to help her. When Abby's demon finally shows its true colors in the book's denouement, it's not only a spectacularly grotesque and profane depiction of exorcism, but counterintuitively a truly inspiring portrayal of the resilience of friendship. Certainly not for all readers, but anyone interested in seeing William Peter Blatty's infamous The Exorcist (1971) by way of Heathers shouldn't miss it.

Kirkus Reviews