Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-38% $10.47$10.47
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$4.32$4.32
$3.99 delivery May 21 - 22
Ships from: Goodwill of North Georgia Sold by: Goodwill of North Georgia
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- VIDEO
Audible sample Sample
My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel Paperback – July 11, 2017
Purchase options and add-ons
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?
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherQuirk Books
- Publication dateJuly 11, 2017
- Dimensions5.97 x 0.93 x 8.99 inches
- ISBN-101594749760
- ISBN-13978-1594749766
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews
Review
“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
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Abby sits in her office and stares at the email, then clicks the blue link. It takes her to the homepage of the paper she still thinks of as the News and Courier, even though it changed its name fifteen years ago. There’s the exorcist floating in the middle of her screen, balding and with a ponytail, smiling at the camera in a blurry headshot the size of a postage stamp. Abby’s jaw aches and her throat gets tight. She doesn’t realize she’s stopped breathing.
The exorcist was driving some lumber up to Lakewood and stopped on I-95 to help a tourist change his tire. He was tightening the lug nuts when a Dodge Caravan swerved onto the shoulder and hit him full-on. He died before the ambulance arrived. The woman driving the minivan had three different painkillers in her system—four if you included Bud Light. She was charged with driving under the influence.
“Highways or dieways,” Abby thinks. “The choice is yours.”
It pops into her head, a catchphrase she doesn’t even remember she remembered, but in that instant she doesn’t know how she ever forgot. Those highway safety billboards covered South Carolina when she was in high school; and in that instant, her office, the conference call she has at eleven, her apartment, her mortgage, her divorce, her daughter—none of it matters.
It’s twenty years ago and she’s bombing over the old bridge in a crapped-out Volkswagen Rabbit, windows down, radio blasting UB40, the air sweet and salty in her face. She turns her head to the right and sees Gretchen riding shotgun, the wind tossing her blond hair, shoes off, sitting Indian style on the seat, and they’re singing along to the radio at the top of their tuneless lungs. It’s April 1988 and the world belongs to them.
For Abby, “friend” is a word whose sharp corners have been worn smooth by overuse. “I’m friends with the guys in IT,” she might say, or “I’m meeting some friends after work.”
But she remembers when the word “friend” could draw blood. She and Gretchen spent hours ranking their friendships, trying to determine who was a best friend and who was an everyday friend, debating whether anyone could have two best friends at the same time, writing each other’s names over and over in purple ink, buzzed on the dopamine high of belonging to someone else, having a total stranger choose you, someone who wanted to know you, another person who cared that you were alive.
She and Gretchen were best friends, and then came that fall. And they fell.
And the exorcist saved her life.
Abby still remembers high school, but she remembers it as images, not events. She remembers effects, but she’s gotten fuzzy on the causes. Now it’s all coming back in an unstoppable flood. The sound of screaming on the Lawn. The owls. The stench in Margaret’s room. Good Dog Max. The terrible thing that happened to Glee. But most of all, she remembers what happened to Gretchen and how everything got so fucked up back in 1988, the year her best friend was possessed by the devil.
Product details
- Publisher : Quirk Books; Reprint edition (July 11, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594749760
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594749766
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.97 x 0.93 x 8.99 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #128 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
- #358 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #604 in Teen & Young Adult Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
Videos
Videos for this product
0:41
Click to play video
My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel
Amazon Videos
About the author
New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix makes up lies and sells them to people. His novels include HORRORSTÖR about a haunted IKEA, MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM, which is basically "Beaches" meets "The Exorcist", WE SOLD OUR SOULS, a heavy metal horror epic, THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES, and THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, coming on July 13, 2021. He's also the author of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, an award-winning history of the horror paperback boom of the Seventies and Eighties. He wrote the screenplay for, MOHAWK, a horror flick about the War of 1812, and SATANIC PANIC about a pizza delivery woman fighting rich Satanists. You can discover more ridiculous facts about him at www.gradyhendrix.com.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Tigger Warning ⚠️
* dead abused animals
* rape talk
* Demon Possession
Summery
Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since they were 10yrs old. It's the summer of 1988, and as teens, they are coming into their own. Growing up and doing all the things they have always been told not to. They are young. They are honor students. They are invincible. Until they aren't.
Gretchen is from the right part of town. Her parents belong to the right social clubs. They go to the right church. These kind of things don't happen to people like them.
Something is definitely wrong with Gretchen, but only Abby seems to understand that it's so much more than teenage angst. Gretchen is changing. Acting strangely. This isn't Gretchen.
My Thoughts
Wow!!!! I loved it. The 80's child in me couldn't get enough. It is written exactly like the old style horror movies before the world was all AI and CGI. When movies were gritty and you could feel the fear of the actors. When you could relate to the bumps of an old car on a dirt road because it was really being driven, not special effects. This book is corny and cheesy in all the best ways!
Abby is the perfect example of a true high school teenager. Imperfect skin, worrying about her grades, and just trying to fit in. She is real and authentic. She shows true friendship to the extent she is willing to go to to save the people she cares about, even when it seems they no longer care for her. The author wrote her with such clarity that I could picture her walking down the school halls, hanging with friends, and bopping along to the soundtrack of life. It was easy to empathize with her. She is likable. She grows as the book goes along.
There is no doubt that Hendrix can write! This is the second book in a week that I have read by him, and as soon as I finished, I jumped online to order another. He protays horror in the way it should be done. The way I remember it growing up. Hitchcock and The Omen sprinkled in with some vibes of the movie The Craft. All the nostalgic feels with this read while keeping me turning pages and a breakneck speed. Goosebumps all grown up.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2024
Tigger Warning ⚠️
* dead abused animals
* rape talk
* Demon Possession
Summery
Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since they were 10yrs old. It's the summer of 1988, and as teens, they are coming into their own. Growing up and doing all the things they have always been told not to. They are young. They are honor students. They are invincible. Until they aren't.
Gretchen is from the right part of town. Her parents belong to the right social clubs. They go to the right church. These kind of things don't happen to people like them.
Something is definitely wrong with Gretchen, but only Abby seems to understand that it's so much more than teenage angst. Gretchen is changing. Acting strangely. This isn't Gretchen.
My Thoughts
Wow!!!! I loved it. The 80's child in me couldn't get enough. It is written exactly like the old style horror movies before the world was all AI and CGI. When movies were gritty and you could feel the fear of the actors. When you could relate to the bumps of an old car on a dirt road because it was really being driven, not special effects. This book is corny and cheesy in all the best ways!
Abby is the perfect example of a true high school teenager. Imperfect skin, worrying about her grades, and just trying to fit in. She is real and authentic. She shows true friendship to the extent she is willing to go to to save the people she cares about, even when it seems they no longer care for her. The author wrote her with such clarity that I could picture her walking down the school halls, hanging with friends, and bopping along to the soundtrack of life. It was easy to empathize with her. She is likable. She grows as the book goes along.
There is no doubt that Hendrix can write! This is the second book in a week that I have read by him, and as soon as I finished, I jumped online to order another. He protays horror in the way it should be done. The way I remember it growing up. Hitchcock and The Omen sprinkled in with some vibes of the movie The Craft. All the nostalgic feels with this read while keeping me turning pages and a breakneck speed. Goosebumps all grown up.
Considering the author is a dude, he did a good job of capturing the tortured and intense intimacy of a girlhood friendship, but there was something undenfinably missing.
Maybe the politics of the book were a bit weak? Considering the actual consequences of the Satanic panic, having a real demon possession set in that era felt lacking somehow. Like the actual exorcism at the end was done well, but I wasn't quite satisfied?
Regardless, it was a fun read, and I'd recommend it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. grady’s ability to move from humor to suspense/horror to tear jerking sentiments, all within the same title, is amazing.
this book feels like a nostalgic, classic, 80s horror movie you’d watch at a slumber party. it was everything I’d hope it’d be and more
I’ve since added all of grady’s work to my cart/list, and I truly am excited to read more from him
Lucky for me MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM far from sucked. OMG I swallowed this book whole. Definitely reminiscent of those older horror movies from the 80s where it starts off quirky and innocent and totally teenager and then it just takes a big ol’ flying leap off of a horror cliff once the crap starts hitting the fan. The only thing is I think the blurbs make it out to be far quirkier and silly than what it actually is. There’s some serious silliness at the very end that actually had me laughing and going ‘what the . . .’ in the middle of a seriously spooky scene, but that was about it. The culmination of the story is where the silliness really is. But everything else? It’s creepy and exactly what you’d think of an exorcist story without it taking itself all that seriously.
I loved the song titles for chapter titles and how the 80s was there without being THERE in the story. Hendrix fit those aspects in seamlessly (like Abby’s makeup and hair, the mix tapes, the diet fads). It wasn’t just these time bomb drops meant to immerse you in the decade. The story did that excellently. If anything I’d compare this to Stranger Things with a little more humor and four chicks instead of four boys at the forefront.
There were some aspects of this story that were creepy and cringeworthy. For all the quirkiness, Hendrix did his job working in the horror too. This would be an amazing Friday night Halloween horror movie as it drills into Abby’s life and upends everything. And what a great character. All of them were great characters, but Abby especially. You watch as everything around her falls apart and she just keeps hanging on and hanging on. Even when everything looks its absolute worst she still has a fingernail in the game.
This is a re-read book, without a doubt. Even though there was one scene in particular that had me practically gagging. If you’ve read the book you know which one I’m talking about. Blech. But I am so happy this book turned out to be everything the cover told my soul it was. The world needs more of these books and I really, REALLY hope there’s a movie or a TV series or something in the pipeline for this. I really, really do.
5
Top reviews from other countries
This books reminds me of growing up in the 80s.
But even though, it’s a beautiful book about friendship, and it’s very easy and pleasant to read.
It also surprised me that it was a male author because the girl’s, especially the adolescent girl’s perspective from a general view is very well depicted.
I’d surely be reading more from this author.
One hazy teenage fuelled summer evening a spontaneous drug induced skinny dip goes wrong. Gretchen goes missing in the woods. She is found the next day by her friends naked and afraid. But there’s something a little different. Boy has Gretchen let herself go a little! Why is she acting so weird? What is that smell? Why do all the parents and teachers not give damn?! Can the bonds of friendship survive when your friend may possessed by a demon?!
As you would expect there are some gross scenes. One in particular really got me. However this book it not outright horrifically gory. It builds slowly and with warning. Shout out to Brother Christian Lemon! The biggest Demon fan girl EVER!!!! He weirdly stole my heart….it was the white van with whips and chains!
This is also a story of friendship. The female friendships are captured so perfectly ... it gave me all the feels and you really root for them. You see the bond that is created between these two girls, Abby and Gretchen, from Abbys 10th ET themed roller disco party. I loved this aspect of the book. I may have done a little cry at the end too!
80s pop culture references aplenty. It’s not forced and all flows naturally into the narrative setting the scene and tone instantly transporting you back. Very cinematic. A kind of homage to the 80s and 80s horror. The 80s song title chapter headings were perfection and fitted the narrative of the chapters perfectly.
That VHS 80s style cover! Judge this book by its awesome cover and you will be in for a winner! It does exactly what it says on the tin!
Stranger Things meets Heather’s crossed with The Exorcist and with the emotional pull of Beaches. Witty dialogue, great characters, friendships, and a well crafted horror plot. What more can I say other than I can’t wait for the film!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2021
One hazy teenage fuelled summer evening a spontaneous drug induced skinny dip goes wrong. Gretchen goes missing in the woods. She is found the next day by her friends naked and afraid. But there’s something a little different. Boy has Gretchen let herself go a little! Why is she acting so weird? What is that smell? Why do all the parents and teachers not give damn?! Can the bonds of friendship survive when your friend may possessed by a demon?!
As you would expect there are some gross scenes. One in particular really got me. However this book it not outright horrifically gory. It builds slowly and with warning. Shout out to Brother Christian Lemon! The biggest Demon fan girl EVER!!!! He weirdly stole my heart….it was the white van with whips and chains!
This is also a story of friendship. The female friendships are captured so perfectly ... it gave me all the feels and you really root for them. You see the bond that is created between these two girls, Abby and Gretchen, from Abbys 10th ET themed roller disco party. I loved this aspect of the book. I may have done a little cry at the end too!
80s pop culture references aplenty. It’s not forced and all flows naturally into the narrative setting the scene and tone instantly transporting you back. Very cinematic. A kind of homage to the 80s and 80s horror. The 80s song title chapter headings were perfection and fitted the narrative of the chapters perfectly.
That VHS 80s style cover! Judge this book by its awesome cover and you will be in for a winner! It does exactly what it says on the tin!
Stranger Things meets Heather’s crossed with The Exorcist and with the emotional pull of Beaches. Witty dialogue, great characters, friendships, and a well crafted horror plot. What more can I say other than I can’t wait for the film!