Summary:
High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes wrong, Gretchen begins to act . . . different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening when 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?
My Thoughts:
The book starts at the current time, with adult Abby seeing an article about the exorcist's death, and then flashes back to fourth grade, when she first meets Gretchen. Gretchen is the only person who came to her birthday party, and Abby reluctantly begins a friendship with her. Flash forward to high school, and Abby has two more friends: Margaret and Glee. They are at Margaret's lakehouse, drinking alcohol, when they decide to try acid. When the effects start, Gretchen wanders off to jump in the lake and disappears under water for a long time. Once she gets out, Gretchen becomes really sick. When she seems to get better, she starts acting different and mean. After a while of worrying, Abby's worst fears are realized when an exorcist confirms that Gretchen is possessed by a demon, and he volunteers to help.
I really like how fleshed out the characters in this book are. You really care a lot about Abby and Gretchen, and even about some of the other characters as well. The story itself is well-written and easy to read. However, this book was marketed more as a horror novel when most of it isn't. It's more of a coming-of-age story than horror, which is fine, but the description led me to have high expectations of the horror aspect, which in that, it disappointed me.
I would recommend this book, but be aware that it's more high-school drama oriented than horror.
My Rating: 3 stars
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