Diavolo Ray's Blog: Demon Reads

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I never realized how faithful the film adhered to the novel. Blatty had a great ear for dialogue, and much of the conversations are intact in the movie. I can see why he won an Oscar for the screenplay. The bonus was a few anecdotal paragraphs of authenticated possessions from history--which made for fun Wikipedia asides. What the book conveys better than the film, however, is the metaphor of inner demons in our lives that constantly challenge our worth. We must do the consecrated work of continuing to believe in ourselves, despite evidence to the contrary. Even though life is filled with banality, despair, and sorrow, there's a harder path upward to joy and redemption.

Just noticed I finished this on the anniversary of WP Blatty's death. Weird.



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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Set during the 1970s at the tail end of a backward era when young unwed mothers were treated as sinners and were encouraged to give their babies up for adoption, this cautionary tale for our increasingly oppressive theocratic times, is a serious page-turner, mixing poignant social commentary with effective genre horror. The characters are well-drawn and their arcs are interesting. The supernatural elements are slow to arrive, but the book doesn't suffer for it. Chapters 19 and 22 are especially jarring and exquisitely crafted. This is now my favorite Grady Hendrix novel.



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Blood Music [novel] by Greg Bear

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A haunting dystopia or utopia, depending on your view of human dominion over Earth, this biotech nightmare goes to some interesting places. The scientific language is fairly dense and impenetrable to the layperson--lots of biology, chemistry, and cybernetic terminology, but I think it served the novel well. Also raised some interesting questions about ethics in the science community. Should our desire for new advancements--and to "see what happens"--override our obligation to be transparent and protect the human race from potential AI takeover of our entire cellular makeup? The book ends on a hopeful note, in a world that bears little resemblance to the one we know. Genuinely frightening and wondrous in equal measure.



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