Book Review: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

“God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.”

Reading William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist felt like a variety of strange things. It was like getting stung by something terrible, then looking at your wound and feeling pride for not blubbering like a baby. It was like closing your eyes and putting an insect in your mouth, feeling the discomfort of insect legs between your teeth, but realizing it tasted better than you expected.

(Fun Fact: I was actually brave enough to try a bug appetizer at a restaurant. Am I cool yet?)

The Exorcist was a thrilling and uncomfortable ride, and one I can't say I regret. This was a horror classic I'd been dying to read for awhile. As someone who has YET to watch the movie and who went into the story pretty blind to the plot, this book was a legitimately scary experience for me. I found myself looking over my shoulder several times, pausing when I thought I'd heard eerie noises, and once in the middle of the night, I thought something had actually grabbed my ankles. I even found myself saying prayers for my soul. I was shaken up and in constant states of paranoia at one in the morning. It was lots of fun! And all of this from a very simple, evenly paced, well written plot.

Beloved movie star Chris MacNeil has had a very busy film career, one that leaves her very little time for her twelve year old daughter Regan. When Regan's body is invaded by a malevolent and powerful evil, Chris's only hope lies in the hands of psychiatrist and Jesuit priest Damien Karras. 

"Then his eyes locked, stunned, on the thing that was Regan, on the creature that was lying on its back in bed, head propped against a pillow while eyes bulging wide in their hollow sockets shone with mad cunning and burning intelligence, with interest and with spite as they fixed upon his, as they watched him intently, seething in a face shaped into a skeletal, hideous mask of mind-bending malevolence."

I can honestly say there wasn't a dull moment in this book. From the very beginning it jumps right into the creepy, from the strange noises in the night to Regan's "invisible friend" Captain Howdy.  The book also went a lot into medical phenomena and psychiatry, which I personally found fascinating. Who knew people could diagnose a person with so many mental illnesses before finally concluding "demon possession"? 

As for characters, homicide detective William Kinderman and the demon Pazuzu were my favorites, hands down. I loved Kinderman for his awkwardness and love of film which I strongly related to as a  huge classic cinema fan. While I noticed some people who'd already finished this book found Kinderman's character to be annoying, I personally found him comical and even endearing. However, that might just be the biased old movie fan in me. I just couldn't help but feel that Kinderman and I would have been good friends in real life, even movie buddies. Now, Pazuzu was obviously a favorite simply for the aggressive, wicked, blasphemous dramatics. He had all the good lines and he was obviously the most interesting. The character I was probably the most irritated with was Regan's mother, and maybe that's because I low-key blame her for Regan's possession.

"Chris was setting down the bird when she noticed the Ouija board. Close. On the table. She'd forgotten she had it. Almost as curious about herself as she was about others, she'd originally bought it as a possible means of exposing clues to her subconscious. It hadn't worked."

I felt like all the hysterics and the terror, all the demon possessed drama could possibly have been avoided if the mother had not kept a Ouija board in the house for her daughter to find and make invisible friends. You make one unwise purchase and the next thing you know, your daughter's head starts spinning like a carousel.

I was actually surprised to discover I wasn't offended by the blasphemy. I knew what I was getting into when I made the decision to read the book and I assumed that it was going to be "controversial" enough to make me squirm and cringe. All of the gruesome obscenities were performed and spoken by the demon, and I thought, "Well, of course." How did people expect demons to act if not crudely and blasphemously? I will admit, though, that I felt the need to bathe in holy water after finishing this book. It's....well it's a lot.

All in all reading this book was quite a journey. I loved observing the varying struggles with religion between certain characters, the spiritual turmoil, and the feeling that this wasn't just a horror novel about eerie poltergeist-like occurrences, grotesque harm, and demon possession. It was a battle between good and evil, and whether you are a person of religion (like Father Damien Karras) or of no religion at all (like Regan's mother), you are rooting for the same outcome, you want and hope that this innocent girl will survive this unspeakable evil.

I was supposed to have paced myself, reading probably parts one through four one week at a time. But it was too good for slow reading. I finished it in a week. I was surprised to learn how short the book actually is. My copy was 385 pages and it felt like a 200 page read. Blatty's writing style, I felt, was very simple and after doing a bit of research, I found him to be fascinating as an author. I had no idea he himself was a Roman Catholic and that he also wrote the screenplay for The Exorcist film!

I don't wanna give too many spoilers away for those like me who have not seen the movie and have yet to read the book, and I obviously can't recommend this book to the feeble. But if you think you might be able to stomach it (like I did the insect) and if you're a budding horror fan like myself, this classic is a must-read. 

(5/5⭐)

                                                                                 xo Nina