My Best Friend's Exorcism

Compulsively readable, suspenseful, disturbing, ultimately touching, and on a couple memorable occasions, absolutely disgusting. So, great horror novel!

I'm not sure if this will resonate with everyone as much as it did with me. It was pretty much a bulls-eye as far as my nostalgia target goes - girl friendship set against high school in the late '80s. But the characters are drawn so well, and the relationship set up so poignantly and believably, I think anyone could get invested in this story.

If the supernatural story doesn't quite hang together for me, I have to say the allegory remains rock-solid: when you're friends in grade school, sometimes the changes that hit during middle and high school can seem like your friend is suddenly possessed. The exaggerated and fictionalized story of actual demon possession cleverly mines the more mundane realities of teen friendships and their challenges.

And as far as the face-value story, Hendrix kept me guessing throughout the climax. I really couldn't imagine how he was going to wrap things up, and ultimately I like how he handled it.

I'll have to let the nonfiction Paperbacks from Hell satisfy my craving for more Hendrix for now, but the next novel he publishes will be at the top of my reading list for sure!