I thought this book was going to be something different, something scarier. I found it not to be spooky, save for a couple instances. Mostly, I was angry at how this family dealt with their clearly suffering child. How insidious the churches involvement was. How easy it was for representatives of the church to overlook a young woman and her knowledge, how smart a 14 year old girl could really be about life and aspects of the church. The church assumes all young girls are virginal and good, and naive; they could never possibly know anything about masturbation, exorcism, assaults within the history of the church, etc. Marjorie and Merry were failed by every adult in this situation, even the ones who seemingly cared and thought it was wrong. The outcome was inevitable, a young girl in fear for her own mind seeking the only thing she knows will end her pain. A sad story, highlighting all the faults in mental health advocacy. Marjorie's mother was taking her to doctors, but the moment her father had to take her and the daughter started complaining and showing signs of "possession," according to him, he took her to church instead. This is a case in which a parent is failing to be a parent and instead letting the child dictate what they do, or willingly accepting something out of this world instead of believing simply that your child needs medical help. I think the most affective aspect of this book was the relationship between the two sisters. How much Merry trusted and loved Marjorie, even until the bitter end. These two try to help and care for each other, when it seems no one sees them truly. And, even as Merry recounts the story years later, she still clearly misses her sister deeply. She tried to remember the truths as she knew them, and even when she feared her sister and what she could do, she loved her. What I found really funny about this book was how often it mentioned and poked fun at the male gaze in horror, only for this book to be written by a male author, writing as a female protagonist, recounting the demonic possession of her 14 year old sister. I mean, sure, it could have been poking fun even at itself in this instance, but mostly I just felt "well isn't this just more of the same"? What is really different about this book from all those other horror movies? How does it meaningfully subvert this narrative? Is pointing out problematic themes in horror enough? I am not sure. This one I had a hard time with, because when I was listening I was in the story. But I just could not believe how far the situation went, what terrible lengths the parents and crew went to instead of properly caring for a young woman in crisis. And to have the sister involved, making her witness the torment, making her live through it, and continuously putting her in harm's way. These parent's destroyed both of their daughter's instead of actually talking to each other and doing the right thing. Throughout the story I was angry, and maybe that was the whole point. Please be aware of trigger warnings in this book, as there are quite a lot of gruesome moments involving body horror, blood, sexual objectification of a minor, and more.
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