Eekind’s Reviews > The Exorcist > Status Update

I was gonna say the 1970’s was a bad decade for the name Damien between this and the Omen. And then I find out Father Damien is named after a Catholic priest that serves a leprosy colony and died in the 1880’s…which could mean nothing

Making me wait 80% of the book to get back to Merrin as a main character…

Why is he walking around the Psychiatrists office looking like that…cant he wear a nice shirt when he’s a Psychiatrist Priest pretending not to be a Priest…also he keeps getting stuck on the PK like why do you think that’s not of spiritual significance…you just made me read like four paragraphs of symptoms of demonic Possession but the TK is a bridge too far???

The section where Father Karras was trying to convince Chris that Regan just had PK was deranged. Like, we’re supposed to think an adolescent being able to throw her bedroom furniture around the room is more realistic than her being possessed by the Devil…that really felt like trying to treat the symptoms not the disease

Say what you Will about this book, when it succeeds it’s spectacular. The scene with Father Karras and Chris on the bridge is stupendous and you see how well uses its existing medium while still being easily translate able for adaptation

If the movie is accurate I won’t have to sit through any more of these horrible Lt. Kinderman scenes…they so plodding and overlong and have created so much unnecessary bloat In this book because it’s not a religious crime book it’s a religious horror / thriller. Also Kinderman is written like a bad OC that’s just there to provide endless exposition that I don’t care about.

Super interesting discussion of faith. I appreciated how we are getting a window into all of these women’s complicated relationships with faith. From Chris being an atheist, Sharon being more eastern religion focused and Mrs Parent being a Catholic medium. I think it adds so much texture to the proceedings because it shows where they characters start in their view of the world and how that may be challenged

It’s weird Chris’ opportunity to direct a portion of a multi director film wasn’t included in the adaptation. I think it does a good job adding another point of tension, about her career opportunities as a middle aged actor and effectively single mother. Plus it adds to why Regan may be acting out contrary to her usual demeanor because her mother may be working longer hours away from her for this position

The upsetting reveal that the the main protagonist of this book could have been named Goneril instead of Regan only overshadowed by Chris MacNeil having a dead son named Jaime I have otherwise never heard of