Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "demonic-possession"

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A tale of demonic horror and the everlasting power of friendship.

As children, Abby and Gretchen become firm friends, experiencing the beginning of their teenage lives joined at the hip, riding the waves of their adolescence together as the years go by, their shared bond one that only childhood best friends can have.

One night, with the freedom of a parent-free zone and a concoction of substances at a friend's lakeside home, carefree skinny-dipping takes a sinister turn when Gretchen is lost deep in the woods until daylight.

Following the incident, she no longer seems quite herself. Battling mysterious and degenerative ailments, she is becoming lost, a repulsive relic of her former self. But Abby refuses to give up on her friend, the stakes becoming ever higher in the ensuing battle for Gretchen's soul.

Packed with 80s nostalgia and lashings of supernatural horror, 'My Best Friend's Exorcism' is a rip-roaring horror novel that clutches hold of you from its opening line, holding you in its grasp throughout each of its tightly-plotted, rollercoaster chapters. At its core, this is a character-driven story, the teenagers and the adults in their orbit impeccably portrayed. The narrative focuses on the friendship between Abby and Gretchen - we are with them throughout the development of their years of friendship, an emotive foundation for the horrors that are to be unleashed, as much a coming-of-age story as it is of horror.

The frothy glitz and sense of fun we've come to associate with the 80s is marinated throughout the prose, each chapter marked by a classic song, the atmosphere dripping in suspense and sudden bursts of violent drama reminiscent of the era's height of slasher movies and supernatural thrillers. This is vivid storytelling, the visual imagery and music as prominent as the angst-ridden undercurrents and terror of the unknowable, combining to create a deep and dizzying spectacle that is as much felt as it is read.

Dark and light in equal measure, the novel blends scenes of revulsion with humour, trauma with heart-warming moments, delving into its themes of love and faith and how they are tested to the limits, bringing with it a fresh perspective to this niche of the genre and building a truly human tale of perseverance in the face of adversity and the battle of overcome relentless evil. Truly absorbing and entertaining, this was a non-stop thrill ride of a book, like a party you just don't want to end, which I devoured in one weekend. This was the first novel by Grady Hendrix that I've read and it certainly won't be the last.

Vivid and visceral, 'My Best Friend's Exorcism' is a gripping horror novel that will delight and disturb in equal measure.



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A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A tale of demonic possession and the frenzy in its wake.

Author Rachel Neville interviews Merry Barrett about events that befell her family fifteen years earlier, when her older sister Marjorie began to display signs of schizophrenia, taking Merry back to the darkest chapter in her family's history.

The psychiatrists prove unable to help, while Marjorie’s symptoms grow increasingly severe and her behaviour more concerning. Turning to the Church for help, the family become convinced that Marjorie is the victim of demonic possession.

As cameras for reality TV show “The Possession” follow every development and broadcast their terror to the world, the family prepare for the exorcism, something from which none of them may ever be able to recover.

‘A Head Full of Ghosts’ is Paul Tremblay’s first horror novel, following two detective novels and several horror short stories. The multi-layered plot is narrated from the perspective of Merry, the younger sister of the possessed teenager, both in retrospect as an adult and through her memories as a child. Tremblay captures Merry's young voice incredibly well and through her eyes a portrait of her family evolves throughout. Moving backwards and forwards in time, the events surrounding Marjorie’s possession are unveiled, a suspenseful escalation towards the exorcism and its aftermath.

With some characters believing in Marjorie’s possession and others skeptical, the novel captures the dual approach from both the perspective of belief in demons and the traditional Catholic exorcism and a disbelief in there being any supernatural or preternatural influence, instead the human characters themselves perpetuating the events and becoming caught up in a frenzy, akin to the moral panics of history. This is as much a social and psychological drama as it is a possession story, combining to form a horror thriller as subtle as it is blatant in its themes, this duality proving highly effective.

There is a distinctly modern edge through the lens of both the reality TV show and the blog which retrospectively analyses the show. As we so often experience in the media and through social media, the scrutiny of others only seems to contribute to the chaos surrounding the turmoil and the feeling of inevitability over what is to come.

‘A Head Full of Ghosts’ spins a captivating, enjoyable and thought-provoking tale. The first book I’ve read by Paul Tremblay, it leaves me eager to delve into the horrors presented in more of his work.



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