I think it helps that I was born in 1976, so I'm the target audience and I buddy read it with a friend who was also in middle school in the late 80s-high school in the 90s, so you know--the E. I don’t use Spotify but was glad to see someone made this exact same playlist on Apple Music so I listened to each song right before starting that specific chapter and it was so awesome. It reminds me of the way Horrorstör was made to look like an actual furniture character - I adore such book whimsy! They drift apart and come together after Abby isn’t convicted of kidnapping and drugging Gretchen, and tying her to a bed, and over the years remain friends. Adolescence is a complicated time, and some really bright people think that when the adult emerges, it’s like you’re being taken over by a different person.

This brought back a lot of memories for me and made it even more relatable when it comes to the power of friendship and just dealing with everything that tends to happen in those four years of high school. The inter-girl politics between Abby, Gretchen, and their friends was very well done and believable. I love the 80's setting, and I love the title of each chapter being an 80's song, it was hilarious and awesome. The 80s song title chapter headings were perfection and fitted the narrative of the chapters perfectly.It feels more like a Megan Abbott book, a window into the lives of teenage girls than a horror novel.

The high school melodrama and parents-just-don't-understand perspective can seem a bit farfetched at times, but for the most part feel familiar if you can still put yourself in a 16 year old mindset. Four girls in high school are just trying to get by and on one strange night things get a little weird. Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, but things change when they start high school. Abby knows that something is wrong, coming to the conclusion that her best friend must be possessed. After the nirvana that was Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, I had to give Grady Hendrix's fiction a shot.It was a chore to slosh through a majority of this book, and by the time I got to the end, I was vastly disappointed. I loved how heartwarming Abby's love for Gretchen was and I connected deeply with these characters (at one point, Kay and I were even discussing how amazed we were that Grady had nailed the teen girl personalities so well). Nothing will stand in her way as Abby tries to save her friend from the devil, but will their friendship be strong enough to overcome such forces of evil?