[HDNA #02] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

Spoilers for:
Tonight She Comes
Harden My Heart
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough


Tonight She Comes

Not much to say here, but Abby got set the fuck up. :lol:

You do not fuck with demons. They do not play around.

But, again, WHO THE FUCK LEAVES BABIES IN BAGS FOR ANYONE TO STEAL.

Harden My Heart

This is really, really picking up steam and like the last chapter, not a lot to mention because this fucking freight train is starting to roll. That said...

Okay, Christian is a fucking serial killer. Handcuffs, duct tape, knock out powder. Dude has a rapist's go bag in his car. Weirdo. Even so, he still makes me laugh. :lol:

The whole scene with Abby in Gretchen's house is stressful. From the whole cat and mouse with Abby and Gretchen to poor, poor Max to the This would play out great in a movie. A few lines I liked:
"Oh," she said. "You bitch..."
I love that realization that she was drugged. :lol:
She heard thrashing movement, then a barn owl was standing on the limb of a live oak, staring at Abby as if it knew her name.
I don't know why, but that bolded part got to me a little. Fucking owls.

And of course, that last line:
The owl watched them the entire time.
This entire chapter made me want a movie version of this so hard.

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Christian has no idea what the fuck he's doing.
"I'll be doing some serious blasting of prayer and if you'r not girded with the full Armor of God, you might not make it through with your soul intact."
:lol:

I'm pretty sure Christian was based on Mac from It's Always Sunny. He's always talking about serious blasting. :lol:

But I will say, I was second guessing Gretchen's possession. Even after EVERYTHING that's happened, even Max, I was still second guessing if Abby was possessed. Until of course the dual voices. *shudder*

Did you guys notice that Christian became "Brother Lemon" in this chapter. Interesting.

That's where I'm at right now, so if you guys go further, please do the spoiler warnings.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

Full disclosure, I was a fat boy who ate all the fudge cake. :( I read it all even though I asked myself not to. :(

Yeah, Brother Lemon's van was a well stocked rape van. :lol: I can see Mac now that you say that, but I kept thinking of you mix of Dog the Bounty Hunter and Randy Macho Man Savage.

Spoiler because I don't know where this part is:
Spoiler:
When he was going off about how he was much buffer than his brothers and that they couldn't do the show with him, along with him saying how simple he thought the deliverance was going to be, made me think he was going to fail. Too much pride there, and pride like that is a sin. He was not pure.
The baby in the basket was an odd thing. When they mentioned it originally, I knew it was going to pop up again somehow. But like the rest of the Abby being set up, would be easy to debunk if ever actually analyzed by rational people. Like Abby getting blamed for Wallace Stoney's drinking even though she was at work the whole time. I kept waiting for that to be brought up, yet it wasn't. Overall I did like Gretchen's little reign of terror that she started with Abby.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

Like Abby getting blamed for Wallace Stoney's drinking even though she was at work the whole time. I kept waiting for that to be brought up, yet it wasn't.
That bothered me a bit, especially since everything else is coming together so well.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

Yeah, it felt like he just had to put something in there and didn't give it much thought. Oh well.

I think the author is a good story teller, but maybe not such a good writer, if that makes sense. Not trying to dis him at all, just a lot of dead ends and things that didn't go anywhere. It also makes me wonder if this book was way longer, but they cut a ton of things out, meaning that the dead ends weren't dead ends originally, that's just how it ended in the edit. If so, that's too bad because I'd be okay if this book was another 100 pages or so longer and had more backstory, depth and detail that was hinted at but never materialized.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by shiki-jitsu »

I get what you are saying. I don't think he is a bad writer. Because god knows there is some real shit in the horror genre so that would really be a disservice to Hendrix. But with all the setups to dead ends it does feel like he was edited down a fair amount. Its still super cohesive and for the most part flows really well. I thought it faltered a little bit in the end. Not too badly, just a little bit. After some really fucking good chapters it just came down a little too much. Talk more about it in the chapter posts.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

That's pretty much what I meant by saying he was a good story teller. Don't try to suck me into some semantic argument like it's 1996 and I'm 14. Please. :roll:

:lol:

I'm tempted to get HorrorStor or whatever it's called. I do like what he does, and I'm interested to know if there's dead ends there too, or I get the feeling of being edited down at all. If it was edited down and he releases a writer's cut of it some day, I would totally buy it. I also kind of think this is really a YA novel.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

I'm about 30 minutes away from completion, and should be done by today! :yay:

You guys are right about the edit. I think he's a great writer all around (at least with this book), and everything seems deliberate and intentional. So these minor things (her being at work when the crime was committed, for example) really does feel like something cut.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

Spoilers for:
I Think We're Alone Now
I Would Die 4 U
Fast Car
And She Was


Okay, I'm not going to break it down by chapter, but I do want to talk about some things.

First, after finishing the book, I'm more convinced that any loose ends are the results of editing because, as I mentioned, Hendrix appears to be very deliberate in his writing.

For example, outside of the already-discussed "she was at work when it happened", the whole Molly (?) story was never brought up again. I know that side story wasn't critical to the overall book, but why bring something like that up at all unless to reinforce the satanic panic. I don't buy that though. I think there was more to it that was possibly cut.

Anywho, I loved how Abby took over the exorcism after Christian bailed, and I LOVE how she made it her own by adding '80s references (but not so much references but rather things that were important). It working reminded me of something from F. Paul Wilson's The Keep.

Spoilers for The Keep:
Spoiler:
In that book, it wasn't just crosses that had an affect on vampires, Jewish stars would have the same affect. It wasn't the symbol, but rather the belief behind it. That's what I liked about it here; her belief in their friendship rid Gretchen of the demon, cliche as it may be, it worked.
I loved the whole exorcism scene, what with the roaches and what not. And again I was reminded of The Exorcist. You have the majority of the book doing a delightful buildup, then BOOM! Exorcism! It went fast, but not too fast. It was just right.

Going WAY back to my (our) praise of Hendrix going another way than what you expect, and he did that with Christian. I honestly did not expect him to take the fall, but it makes sense. Maybe he's not a rapey serial killer after all, or maybe he is, but his conviction in the Lord is stronger. Either way, he took one for the team in a believable way and became that much more likable for it. And when Abby ran into him (intentionally) 10 years later, I got a little misty eyed. Hell, that whole afterward was powerful as fuck.

I love, love, LOVED the afterward/wrapup/whatever. Hendrix absolutely nailed how friendship is. I love how they never quite stopped keeping in touch, I love how Abby died with Gretchen by her side, I love the last page about how they were friends for 75 years but never made it to Halley's Comet, and I love how Glee kinda came back but was annoying. :lol:

This is a great book. I enjoyed it front to back and I'll probably read it again at some point.

:5stars:
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

I knew Brother Lemon was going to fail, I just didn't know how. I thought maybe he'd die, but nobody in the book died, which surprised me.

Yeah, Molly was another one that I kept waiting on but nothing ever materialized. All the dead ends kept this from being a really good book. While I enjoyed it, I don't know that I could recommend it.

I really felt this was a YA book.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by shiki-jitsu »

Spoilers for:
I Think We're Alone Now
I Would Die 4 U
Fast Car
And She Was

Alien Redrum wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:33 am Anywho, I loved how Abby took over the exorcism after Christian bailed, and I LOVE how she made it her own by adding '80s references (but not so much references but rather things that were important). It working reminded me of something from F. Paul Wilson's The Keep.
I went back and forth on hating and loving this part. I thought it was a bit heavy-handed in both its messaging and its nostalgia, but at the same time I agreed with it's messaging. So ultimately I am out "ok" on this :lol:
Going WAY back to my (our) praise of Hendrix going another way than what you expect, and he did that with Christian. I honestly did not expect him to take the fall, but it makes sense. Maybe he's not a rapey serial killer after all, or maybe he is, but his conviction in the Lord is stronger. Either way, he took one for the team in a believable way and became that much more likable for it. And when Abby ran into him (intentionally) 10 years later, I got a little misty eyed. Hell, that whole afterward was powerful as fuck.
Ok, but when he said his "partner" did you not hope for a second that he found the love of another man. I was disappointed shortly after that sentence when he mentioned his wife.

The short mention of Glee made me :lol:
This is a great book. I enjoyed it front to back and I'll probably read it again at some point.
:5stars:
Great book, but I give it :4stars: I have already recommended it to people.
I really felt this was a YA book.
I see where you are coming with this, and I do think it reads this way by design. It just fits the mold that it set off with in the beginning. I don't really have an issue with this (even though I recognize that I normally would).
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

shiki-jitsu wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:16 pm

Ok, but when he said his "partner" did you not hope for a second that he found the love of another man. I was disappointed shortly after that sentence when he mentioned his wife.
I did too. I wanted it to be his partner. :(

:lol:
shiki-jitsu wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:16 pm
I see where you are coming with this, and I do think it reads this way by design. It just fits the mold that it set off with in the beginning. I don't really have an issue with this (even though I recognize that I normally would).
I kind of think it reads that way by design, because it was designed to be a YA book. Without knowing any of this author's other work, which is minimal, I just can't give him all the breaks you people do. That's right, I said you people. I don't know if the dead ends are because of poor design, or due to editing. I think this book should be on a Scholastic sheet. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think saying something must be on purpose when we don't really know anything, is just as wrong. Does it matter? No. My enjoyment doesn't change, but I'm not going to praise an author who may or may not actually deserve the praise, you know?

Did he design it, or did the editor? It's hard to say either way. I could see this being a 450 page light but adult novel with a lot of detail, back story and ins and outs, that was edited down to 300 page simple story that was meant for a YA audience. Or I could see a freshman author doing his best and this is what we get. Who knows? But based on that, I can't give this more than

:3stars:

Enjoyable and engrossing, but like eating frosting.
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

Ok, but when he said his "partner" did you not hope for a second that he found the love of another man. I was disappointed shortly after that sentence when he mentioned his wife.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I literally had a brief moment of anger when he wasn't gay. :lol:
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Re: [HTBC] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

Alien Redrum wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:38 pm
Ok, but when he said his "partner" did you not hope for a second that he found the love of another man. I was disappointed shortly after that sentence when he mentioned his wife.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I literally had a brief moment of anger when he wasn't gay. :lol:
Yeah, me too :lol:
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Re: [HTBC #02] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Alien Redrum »

Nice. I think this would make a great film.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat- ... sm-1162830
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Re: [HTBC #02] - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Post by Neon Maniac »

You need to email him and tell him that Abbi and Ilana need to play the parts.
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