I picked this book up during my visit to London Comic Con last year while buying another book. The title alone intrigued me and I had to buy it.
"Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act . . . different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?" - Good Reads
I really liked this book even if it did take me a while to read it (mainly just due to starting other books which I need to stop doing and being busy with other things) The front and back inside pages are styled like a yearbook. It's really cute and brings a nice touch to the book. Even each chapter is named after a song in the 80's. Not only great songs but they also fitted well with what you were reading within that chapter.
While reading I had a huge Jennifer's Body vibe from start to finish. Gretchen being Jennifer and Abby being Needy but with less of the eating boys to sustain youthfulness. I love that movie btw.
Even though it is a slow start, you get the sense of who these characters are and the friendships between them to understand why Abby never gives up on Gretchen even when things get tough. When everyone doubted her and made Abby think she was insane, she stuck till the end, trying to find a solution to bring her friend back from being possessed by a demon #friendshipgoals
The book tends to drag slightly before the real horror kicks in. Gretchen does some disturbing things during the last half of the book when her possession really kicks in which peaks my interest but also made me wanna vomit a little, you can really imagine whats happening in your head and it's very unsettling. There are some wonderful descriptive scenes about what Gretchen has done to her friends. (The diet shakes.. eughhh) At one point Abby drags in a amateur priest and it turns into a scene from the exorcist, minus split pea soup. And I realise no matter what type of exorcism story you are going to tell, you will always be compared to The Exorcist.
I have not read Grady Hendrix debut novel HorrorStor which is formatted to look like a ikea catalogue but I would definitely give it a chance after reading this.
Why didn't I give this a higher star rating on good reads? Well, firstly they never explain how/why Gretchen became possessed. All we know is she went missing in the woods at a party after taking LSD and was found a few hours later. Please don't give us plot holes. I would really like to know why the demon chose Gretchen. I also felt like the end was rushed, even though it was a time jump. I still felt like it wasn't needed.
I haven't really dipped my feet into books that feature teens and horror so I can't really compare this book or recommend anything along the lines to read (help me out with suggestions) but I feel like this is okay to readers and recommend to anyone who isn't a huge fan of horror but want a good story about friendship.
Buy the Book at Amazon
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