This past week, I read Grady Hendrix’s 2016 blockbuster novel, My Best Friend’s Exorcism. It is described as “The Exorcist [if it] had been authored by Tina Fey instead of William Peter Blatty,” is accoladed with a review claiming, “This book packs all the magic of a summer horror flick,” and possesses a newly revised cover that looks straight out of a Blockbuster Video in the late 1980s. My Best Friend’s Exorcism harps in on its unique identity: a novel possessed by the soul of a movie. 

This novel does something I have never seen before, and I want to talk about it!

My Best Friend’s Exorcism comes packed in with a soundtrack! Each chapter takes its titles from pop hits of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. The soundtrack of the novel ranges its singles from all over, for example, Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,”  Eurythmics’ “Missionary Man,” and Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U”. My Best Friend’s Exorcism took me about five hours to read, and the total soundtrack time is two hours. I would play each chapter’s namesake a few times while reading through the book; I feel like I unlocked a brand new multi-modal literary experience.

Because I played the soundtrack while reading, I feel like a whole new side to this novel appeared. The prose used by Grady Hendrix is unique and really defines the novel’s identity, but listening to music while reading My Best Friend’s Exorcism really brought the novel to new heights. I encourage everyone to give this novel a chance, its soundtrack brings an elevated uniqueness towards prose that I have never seen before. So far, in 2025, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is my favorite novel of the year.

P.S. – There are a ton of very helpful digital soundtracks that have kindly catalogued the soundtrack of this novel.