First horror story I'd ever read. Scared the hell out of me. The Georgetown stair scene was not far from where I grew up. ( )

I couldn't just watch the movie. Nooo! I had to read the friggin' book! It's the book that gave me the nightmares! Well, that was long ago. Maybe I should read it again. Now that I'm way up in years, and *so* much more mature... (ha!) it shouldn't affect me anymore. Right? Ha! OMG, do I dare read it again? ( )

I picked up this Harper Perennial edition of Blatty's classic horror novel with the perfectly creepy cover at the Barnes and Noble in Sioux Falls, South Dakota early last month, thinking it would make for some good Halloween reading. Little did I realize, it would also become a chilling meditation on the state of America in late 2024.

Frankly, I might not have picked up the book if it weren’t for the grab-you-by-the-(eye)balls cover design by Milan Bozic. The pea-soup green, the high-contrast eyes and mouth, the font configuration into a cross: it’s the visual equivalent of icy fingers down a spine. “Buy me, Pathetic Mortal!”

I have an interesting history with The Exorcist (the novel), dating back to 1979 when I picked up the original classic purple cover with a blurry photo of what looked like a tormented woman. I think I plucked it from the free paperback books rack at my local library. I was 16 and on the edge of teenage rebellion; in fact, this may have been my shining Rebel with a Cause moment. As a shy preacher's kid in my small Wyoming town, reading The Exorcist was my middle finger to conformity. I didn’t drink or swear, but I could read subversive adult books. In fact, I very purposefully read The Exorcist in public, holding it in front of my face like a billboard advertisement for depravity.

And that's when things went south for me.

Read the rest of the story at The Quivering Pen: https://davidabrams.substack.com/p/what-im-reading-the-exorcist ( )

Wow

Loved this, lost of questions from movies filled in. Loved it. Never expected it to be as good as it was. Not for the faint of heart. ( )

Uma garota de 11 anos começa a demonstrar um comportamento anormal. Quando há uma suspeita de assassinato, sua mãe recorre á igreja católica para tentar encontrar uma solução.