“My Best Friend’s Exorcism” By Grady Hendrix Review

The year is 1988. Charleston, South Carolina. 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?

This book is probably one of the most overhyped books which are reviewed on this blog so far. Most of the people I follow in the book community on the internett have read this book and all of them have rated this book with 4 or 5 stars, which I don’t understand.

I need to give this book points for the 80s vibe in the design of this book, and for the 80s horror movie vibe to the whole story. An extra thing I have appreciated with this book is that there is a Spotify playlist to this book.

The characters in this book are flat, overdramatic and boring. The best way to describe the characters in this book is to say that all the characters are typical YA characters which not a lot of people will like. But in the end if you are not a fan of the YA genre you will not like this book as a whole. This book is a little bit surpricisng and harcorde for a YA book but in the end the way the story is written and the way all characters are presented you will instantly see that this book is a YA book.

The main character Abby really annoyed me annoyed me throughout the whole book. Because at the beginning she was the wannabe kid which wanted to be popular so badly that she could have done anything. And when the books jumpes in time when she and the other main chracter are teens, she is bascially making the stupiest decisions ever just as she had lost her brain somewhere when she was growing up.

The characters in this book felt like the author of this book really tried way too hard to create relevant teens which will make stupid decisions.

The ending is disappointed and you could feel it coming all the way from the middle of this book.

The main plot of this book is possesion, but there are also many (way too many) side plots like rape, some kind of personal vedetta, high school drama, boyfriend / girlfriend drama and other high school bull shit.

The book would be much better if the author cut hald of these side plots and stick to the main plot and dont just focus on the side plots in the middle of the book.

The excessive / gratuitous animal death doesn’t make this book better. If a book has a brutal / excessive / gratuitous aimal death just expect that, that book will get a bad review.

“I love you but not queerly, so don’t expect too much” is a recurring theme of this book so be warned.

I give this book 1 / 5

“A Tale of Jerusalem” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

This is a strange and wildly ahistorical tale. It speaks of three Jewish temple workers, one identified as a priest, who are upon a battlement looking over the army of Pompey surrounding the city. They have made deal with Pompey to purchase a temple sacrifice.

So this one was a tale which was of negligible value, but still amusing and pretty enjoyable. However it wasn’t so good as many other work written by Edgar Allan Poe.

The whole storyline in this short story was pretty weak and it almost seemed like it was very much like it was frivolously put together. What I’m trying to say is that it lacks depth and the characters are bland.

This short story was filled with vivid historical atmosphere but also with mercifully brief.

This short story involves sort of a trick played upon the besieged Jews by the besieging Romans.

To be honest this tale was not at all what I had expected from a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“The Duc de L’Omelette” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

The Duc de L’Omelette dies while dining on an ortolan, and finds himself in hell: an apartment filled with various works of art that has a window overlooking a fiery landscape. Face to face with Satan, the Duc manages to avoid damnation by cheating him at a game of cards.

So this one was another pretty basic short story from Edgar Allan Poe. 

This story is sort of a story which requires more effort to be put it than it gave back to you in the form of being a good read. 

In this story Edgar Allan Poe satirises high society by having the “Duc de L’Omelette” die of a paroxysm because his dinner which wasn’t wrapped quite correctly.

As someone who have read this short story twice I need to say that I really had hard time to understand what really happen in this story. 

I also dont know a word in French, so it took the wind out of it for me a little bit.

I give this poem 1 / 5

“To Helen” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

“To Helen” is the first of two poems to carry that name written by Edgar Allan Poe. The 15-line poem was written in honor of Jane Stanard, the mother of a childhood friend.

This one was pretty basic poem from Edgar Allan Poe which wasn’t that great as some other poems and short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe.

This poem however needs to get points for the part of being sort of oozed with the dark, moody melancholy and gothic vibe to it. 

This poem feels also like it is sort of related to Greece and Rome. 

The main problem with this poem is that it is stereotypical “love” poem which I am not a fan of. I would rather watch Twilight on repeat for a week than read a stereotypical “love” poetry. And Twilight in my opinion is one of the worst movies ever created. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“Ulalume” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

It is about a man who wanders unconsciously to his lover’s tomb, and it is noted for its Gothic imagery and hypnotic rhythm. In “Ulalume” the narrator, with the nighttime stars as his guide, wanders through an eerie woodland.

So this poem for the most part focuses on the narrator’s loss of his beloved. Which Edgar Allan Poe knows a lots about because he have written multiple poems and stories on this topic.

This one I need to say is a melodic poem which of course not everyone will like. This poem almost reads as a perfect song with even better theme to it. But I personally don’t am a fan of.

This one is another quick and short poem as you can expect from Edgar Allan Poe.

This poem sort of gives you a Greek and Roman mythology vibe while reading it which I personally liked a lot.

For the most part the writing style is pretty decent but still Edgar Allan Poe was able to do much better than this.

I give this poem 1 / 5 

“Fairy-land” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

This little poem was pretty enjoyable read but not good enough for me to give it a higher rating. 

There were some nice lines in it, but it didn’t blow my mind or even close to it. 

If you are a big Edgar Allan Poe fan as I am then this poem is worth the read.

If this poem was a little bit more lucidity in a way and less lunicity then it actually is then it would have helped this poem to get a higher rating.

The writing style really helped out this poem for me at least, because it sort of got the old gothic and dark vibe to it which I personally love. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“To M. L. S——” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

Edgar Allan Poe wrote this poem to Marie Louise Shew, who helped his  wife Virginia as she was dying. 

Its was pretty okay poem, it wasn’t good but it also wasn’t super bad.

For the most part this one was a sweet, short and quick to read poem.  And pretty much nothing more than that. 

This one is pretty enjoyable quick read which doesn’t give you any knowledge about the person which it was written to.

I personally not sure what this poem is or what it’s trying to convey. 

The writing style in this one was pretty much okay, but still as someone who have read almost every poem and story written by Edgar Allan Poe I know that he can do much better.

This poem is also one of these poems where the more times you read it the more you get confused.

I give this poem 1 / 5 

“The Empty House” by Algernon Blackwood Review

In the story, a man accompanies his adventurous aunt to a notorious house where, a century ago, a servant was murdered by her jealous suitor. What will the man and his aunt experience in this house ? any ideas ? 

To be fully honest with you here i need to tell you that this story have a lot of dry ice packed around that meat for atmosphere but its still fun to read this story. Because it was published back in 1906 and it’s sort of seeing the journey of the modern day horror we have today. 

This story isn’t bad as most of the horror movies / games / books we have today but it isn’t either nothing original for todays standards because it is an average haunted house story.

Atmosphere in this story is a typical horror story atmosphere nothing unique but also nothing boring. The atmosphere good and sort of moody and old timely, and as we all know these two things together brings much more to the story. So I give this story points for the moody and old timely part in this story.

Ending was oh boy. It was very disappointing, it ruined the whole story. If I go into details then it will turn into a review with spoilers and this blog isn’t about this. So let’s move into something different. 

The introduction into this plot and whole story was actually oddly fantastic, wasn’t expecting this but here we are. But still the introduction doesn’t help the whole story that much because we are looking at the whole book / story not just parts of it.

In the end the whole story is a pretty good morning read, where you just have good time and nothing better to do. 

The main things why this story was so bad are 1) too short 2) too little descriptions + details. And thats all. The whole story and plot could have been million times better if the story was longer and events in this story would have been given more descriptions and details. 

The writing style is okay, but nothing to talk about. The writing style is survivable but it will not stick around with you for a long time. And it is far, far away from Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe level. 

I give this story 1 / 5

“The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

Two people, who have been renamed Eiros and Charmion after death, discuss the manner in which the world ended. Eiros, who died in the recent apocalypse, explains the circumstances to Charmion, who died ten years previously.

This poem is bad, like really bad. 

The whole point of this poem is confusing and hard to understand at least for me. It really didn’t make much sense one way or another.

The writing style isn’t better, its not the typical Edgar Allan Poe as you would have expected. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“Romance” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

This poem is about finding love and how Edgar Allan Poe thinks that he didn’t have the time to care for romance or love. He thinks that it might even be a bad thing if he did, but he couldn’t stop his heart if it trembled.

I need to be honest with you and say that this one is actually one of the few poems that I found enjoying while reading.

This poem is a nice easy and quick read, which is definitely worth reading. But it is not in the classic Edgar Allan Poe style as you might expect.

However this poem isn’t bad nor good. It’s for the most part a decent poem.

The easiest way to explain this poem is that it basically an ode to romance in a personified form with a little gothic vibe to it.

The writing style is pretty good, but as a die hard Edgar Allan Poe fan I know that he was able to do much better than what he did in this poem. 

However in this poem Edgar Allan Poe is able to contemplate the contrast between the world as perceived in his childhood to the world as viewed “of late” in his adulthood.

I give this poem 1 / 5