My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel

Soon to be a major motion picture.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?

The Wall Street Journal

“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.”

that’ll give you My Best Friend’s Exorcism...Campy. Heartfelt. Horrifying.”

“Take The Exorcist, add some hair spray and wine coolers, and enroll it in high school in 1988

Fangoria

“Clever, heartfelt, and get-under-your-skin unnerving.”

Bloody Disgusting

“A touching story of high school friendship and, well, demonic possession.”

or the bodily fluids.”

“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

Collider

“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.”

Southern Living magazine

“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.”

POPSUGAR

“The perfect mix of '80s nostalgia and scares.”

Reader’s Digest

“My Best Friend’s Exorcism has the same throwback vibes [as Stranger Things] and a vintage-looking cover to boot.”

Bustle

“This book packs all the magic of a summer horror flick.”

SFFWorld More praise for Grady Hendrix:

“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.”

The New York Times Book Review, on Paperbacks from Hell

“Pure, demented delight.”

The Washington Post, on Horrorstör

“Horrorstör delivers a crisp terror-tale...[and] Hendrix strikes a nice balance between comedy and horror.”

Booklist, starred review, on We Sold Our Souls

“Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.”

Los Angeles Times, on Paperbacks from Hell

“A true appreciation of the genre.”

Bustle, on Horrorstör

“An inventive, hilarious haunted house tale.”

CNET, on We Sold Our Souls

“A good, creepy, music-tinged thriller.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The exorcist is dead.     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.

About the Author

Grady Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of several New York Times best sellers including How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and many more. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and sold over two million copies. He also writes nonfiction, and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction.

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