My Best Friend’s Exorcism

  Ava Fernandez

    My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix is about a friendship between two girls, and the turn their relationship takes after one of them is possessed by a demon. The book begins with Abby’s E.T. themed birthday party in 4th grade. Nobody came, except Gretchen bringing her a bible as a present. At first Abby was upset and ran to the bathroom. But Gretchen came and comforted her. “I didn’t want to give you a Children’s Bible,” Gretchen said through the stall door. “My mom picked it out. I told her not to. I wanted to get you an E.T. thing. They had one where his heart lit up”(Hendrix, 18). Abby felt better, and they went out to the rink and skated together. They became best friends after the party.

 In 10th grade, Gretchen and Abby went to one of their friends' houses. The house was near some woods and a lake. Late in the night, the group decided to try LSD. After not feeling the effects, they get bored and decide to swim in the lake. One of their friends tried to warn them about the shallow water, but before she could finish Gretchen jumped off the deck into the water. After jumping in, she disappeared into the woods. Abby runs off to find her. When she does, Gretchen is extremely frightened and distressed with scratch marks all over. Days after the incident, Gretchen became quieter, stopped taking care of herself. When Abby tries to help, she gets shallow and confusing answers. Until one day, Gretchen comes to school perfectly. Too perfect. Everyone except Abby is immediately swept away by her. Abby tries to figure out what happened until she realizes that Gretchen was possessed.

This book is interesting because it takes place in the 80s, and reflects some of the cultural attitudes at the time. The possession is portrayed similarly to sexual assault, and many of the adults are uncaring about what happened. Gretchen tells Abby about what happened in the woods, and Abby believed that she was assaulted. When she tried to tell her school counselor about what happened out of concern for Gretchen, he simply dismissed it. He accuses her of having a bad influence on Gretchen. “If I find you are in any way responsible for the change in Gretchen Lang’s behavior, if I find that you are her ‘dealer,’ I will turn you over to the authorities”(Hendrix, 111). Instead of trying to help the girls, the counselor only cares about the school and Gretchen’s parents' image. He accuses Abby of being a drug dealer because it’s easier for him to punish her then care about his students. He has no concern for how Gretchen may be hurting, and the fact that Abby is trying to help her friend.

Characters in the book also regularly worry about satanism and talk about it. It sounds nonsensical when they do, and shows how they focus on the image of moral purity instead of actually caring about the people around them. In the 80s, the satanic panic was a moral panic about satanic influence on youth in america. On the way to a school field trip, all the students talked about a news special shown on TV. “His two-hour special Exposing Satan’s Underground had aired the night before during prime time on NBC. It sent Geraldo up against the forces of satanism, talking to serial killers (and Ozzy Osbourne) as he proved (or strongly implied) that a secret network of over one million satanists was responsible for murdering fifty thousand children a year”(Hendrix,210). 

I enjoyed this book a lot for its focus not only on horror, but also comedy. I also liked how the narrator accounted for the characters' ages when talking about their feelings and perspective. The characters take a lot of things that aren’t important very seriously, and the narrator has similar energy to them. It’s funny at times but also realistic and reminds us of how we acted at their age. “Maybe Abby could show this weirdo how good she was at skating, and she’d tell everyone at school. They’d all want to see, but she’d never have another birthday party again, so they’d never see her skate unless they begged her to do it in front of the whole school, and then she might do it and blow everyone’s minds, but only if they begged her a lot”(Hendrix,19). But there are also times where because you see their perspective, you understand their frustration and get angry alongside them. Seeing the adults around them be uncaring and self absorbed makes you feel for the characters and what they're going through, and it feels relatable for people who have dealt with similar situations and people.