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impyThanks to the ever lovely luxken27, I picked up My Best Friend's Exorcism from the library and pretty much devoured it over my weekend. I mean, the title alone tells you what you're getting (it's funny and there's a horror element!) but then I get the book and the back tells me it's set in Charleston and um, yes. Yes, please, sign me up. Oh, and it's set in the 80's.
I finished it and immediately recommended it to Cass who has yet to get back to me on the likelihood of that happening. Rude. Once upon a time I would've also smacked Ari with it but that's probably not a good idea these days.
Anyway, I have thoughts and they're spoilery, so ...
First up, we're going straight into the spoilers with this: the dog dies. I know for a lot of people that's a dealbreaker so I'm going to lead with that. Normally this would be a dealbreaker for me as well, however it works for the story because it's not just "oh, look, the book isn't quite working on its own, we need to level up and this is the easiest way." Nope, Max's death is important because it's a turning point for both Gretchen and Abby, and it continues to haunt Gretchen for the rest of her life. It's a big thing and it's not made less of a big thing even as we race to the end. It's horrible and it's meant to be horrible.
Flipside, there is another dog in the book and he does not die and is a hero so that helps. A little. Poor Max.
Kay. We move on because the sads are probably not the things to focus on for this book. There are two things that took this book from okay to "everyone, read it! Wait, no, the Max thing means half the people I know won't read it... but it's still good so read it anyway?"
One- I don't think I've ever read a book set in Charleston that actually managed to a) venture out of downtown for very long, let alone most of the book and b) took place pretty much in my backyard. For whatever reason, the school they go to (Albermarle Academy) is a fictionalized version of Porter Gaud. Porter has pretty much not been having the best time because heyo, you know what was happening at Porter during the 80's? Oh yeah, that sex scandal. So maybe that's why the name was changed, maybe something else. I dunno. I do know that I spent a good chunk of my childhood going to Porter on weekends with my Dad and my brother and then later as a teenager with Ari, Cass, and Nelle during the summers and Kate in the between years. This was the school in my neighborhood and hey, the Crescent gets a mention when we're describing where the school is.
Anyway. I got to spend a fair chunk of the book knowing where things were and remembering how they used to be and also I might've been very confused at the start of the book when Abby, who is ten at this point, is mentioning that she can ride to the Mt Pleasant movie theatre and...we had not fully established that they lived in Mt. Pleasant at the time. Maybe it was mentioned and I hadn't picked up on it yet but for a moment I was trying to figure out on what planet anyone would let their kid ride their bike across the Cooper River Bridges at that time. Especially when later on they mention that the Grace bridge basically required prayers to make it across safely. :p In a car, I should mention.
No one else mentioned the setting in their reviews (well, the ones I perused) so that's why I'm gushing here. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea of a beach house in winter being absolutely freezing but this was the 80's and it's possible so I'll allow it. Still, acting like Charleston really does winter is kind of insane and insulting to anyone who experiences real winter but that's not really the case here so we move along.
Huh. I guess I should probably give you the tiny little blurb for what the book is about beyond Charleston in the 80's before the Hurricane kicked our asses, huh?
Abby and Gretchen meet and become best friends after a disastrous birthday party. Over the years we see bits and pieces of their friendship as it grows until we're in highschool. Gretchen goes missing one night and when she turns up again the next morning, she's changed. Over the course of the fall of 1988, Gretchen will fall apart and take her friends down with her, leaving Abby to try and save the day while still not fully grasping what's happened until she's pretty much hosed.
My favorite, favorite, faaaaaaaaaaaavorite bit of the book is when Abby takes over the exorcism at the end of the book. Things have gone so beyond wrong that she's pretty much given up hope of even getting out of the house and not going directly to the psych ward (both because of the events of the book thus far and also maybe kidnapping your best friend and tying her up in a beach house is not the best idea ever) but she gives it one last chance. She rallies because to her, despite everything Gretchen may or may not have done, she's still Abby's best friend and she's still worth saving.
So she pulls herself up and throws away the religious script that hasn't really worked thus far and instead focuses on what she does believe in. She believes in her friendship, in all the little things that made it and nearly broke it and everything in between. She believes in Abby and Gretchen and dammit, this scene is both hilarious (In the name of Phil Collins...) and heartbreaking. I admit that after the Ari thing, I've become a sucker for best friend moments in fiction but this one kind of did me in, but in the best way possible. It's this scene, and the very end of the book, that earns the Beaches comparison that crops up everywhere.
So for those moments, I highly recommend the book.
And on a weird note that's only of interest to me, Margaret's family and the shack where all hell breaks loose initially, reminds me a LOT of my brother's ex who died a year or so ago. I wouldn't say Margaret reminds me of her, like at all, but the shack does. Shortly before her death, K's family donated the (a?) shack from one of their properties to some museum because it was part of the slave's quarters and I don't remember much other than K was not a fan of the building and was glad to be rid of it because it freaked her out. Not that this is necessarily something unusual for this area, it's just where my mind wandered.
Sigh. And now we begin my should've been a vacation but isn't week.
I finished it and immediately recommended it to Cass who has yet to get back to me on the likelihood of that happening. Rude. Once upon a time I would've also smacked Ari with it but that's probably not a good idea these days.
Anyway, I have thoughts and they're spoilery, so ...
First up, we're going straight into the spoilers with this: the dog dies. I know for a lot of people that's a dealbreaker so I'm going to lead with that. Normally this would be a dealbreaker for me as well, however it works for the story because it's not just "oh, look, the book isn't quite working on its own, we need to level up and this is the easiest way." Nope, Max's death is important because it's a turning point for both Gretchen and Abby, and it continues to haunt Gretchen for the rest of her life. It's a big thing and it's not made less of a big thing even as we race to the end. It's horrible and it's meant to be horrible.
Flipside, there is another dog in the book and he does not die and is a hero so that helps. A little. Poor Max.
Kay. We move on because the sads are probably not the things to focus on for this book. There are two things that took this book from okay to "everyone, read it! Wait, no, the Max thing means half the people I know won't read it... but it's still good so read it anyway?"
One- I don't think I've ever read a book set in Charleston that actually managed to a) venture out of downtown for very long, let alone most of the book and b) took place pretty much in my backyard. For whatever reason, the school they go to (Albermarle Academy) is a fictionalized version of Porter Gaud. Porter has pretty much not been having the best time because heyo, you know what was happening at Porter during the 80's? Oh yeah, that sex scandal. So maybe that's why the name was changed, maybe something else. I dunno. I do know that I spent a good chunk of my childhood going to Porter on weekends with my Dad and my brother and then later as a teenager with Ari, Cass, and Nelle during the summers and Kate in the between years. This was the school in my neighborhood and hey, the Crescent gets a mention when we're describing where the school is.
Anyway. I got to spend a fair chunk of the book knowing where things were and remembering how they used to be and also I might've been very confused at the start of the book when Abby, who is ten at this point, is mentioning that she can ride to the Mt Pleasant movie theatre and...we had not fully established that they lived in Mt. Pleasant at the time. Maybe it was mentioned and I hadn't picked up on it yet but for a moment I was trying to figure out on what planet anyone would let their kid ride their bike across the Cooper River Bridges at that time. Especially when later on they mention that the Grace bridge basically required prayers to make it across safely. :p In a car, I should mention.
No one else mentioned the setting in their reviews (well, the ones I perused) so that's why I'm gushing here. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea of a beach house in winter being absolutely freezing but this was the 80's and it's possible so I'll allow it. Still, acting like Charleston really does winter is kind of insane and insulting to anyone who experiences real winter but that's not really the case here so we move along.
Huh. I guess I should probably give you the tiny little blurb for what the book is about beyond Charleston in the 80's before the Hurricane kicked our asses, huh?
Abby and Gretchen meet and become best friends after a disastrous birthday party. Over the years we see bits and pieces of their friendship as it grows until we're in highschool. Gretchen goes missing one night and when she turns up again the next morning, she's changed. Over the course of the fall of 1988, Gretchen will fall apart and take her friends down with her, leaving Abby to try and save the day while still not fully grasping what's happened until she's pretty much hosed.
My favorite, favorite, faaaaaaaaaaaavorite bit of the book is when Abby takes over the exorcism at the end of the book. Things have gone so beyond wrong that she's pretty much given up hope of even getting out of the house and not going directly to the psych ward (both because of the events of the book thus far and also maybe kidnapping your best friend and tying her up in a beach house is not the best idea ever) but she gives it one last chance. She rallies because to her, despite everything Gretchen may or may not have done, she's still Abby's best friend and she's still worth saving.
So she pulls herself up and throws away the religious script that hasn't really worked thus far and instead focuses on what she does believe in. She believes in her friendship, in all the little things that made it and nearly broke it and everything in between. She believes in Abby and Gretchen and dammit, this scene is both hilarious (In the name of Phil Collins...) and heartbreaking. I admit that after the Ari thing, I've become a sucker for best friend moments in fiction but this one kind of did me in, but in the best way possible. It's this scene, and the very end of the book, that earns the Beaches comparison that crops up everywhere.
So for those moments, I highly recommend the book.
And on a weird note that's only of interest to me, Margaret's family and the shack where all hell breaks loose initially, reminds me a LOT of my brother's ex who died a year or so ago. I wouldn't say Margaret reminds me of her, like at all, but the shack does. Shortly before her death, K's family donated the (a?) shack from one of their properties to some museum because it was part of the slave's quarters and I don't remember much other than K was not a fan of the building and was glad to be rid of it because it freaked her out. Not that this is necessarily something unusual for this area, it's just where my mind wandered.
Sigh. And now we begin my should've been a vacation but isn't week.