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A review by pbro42
Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz
3.0
This was definitely a case where the cover (wrongly) influenced my expectations of the book. There’s a reason why the cliche exists, I guess.
The cartoony artwork made me think that this was a dark comedy. But I picked up the book after a Reddit recommendation, (H/T r/horrorlit) and I was happy to be proven wrong.
The content was decidedly NOT humorous, and at times jarringly gruesome. I was expecting religious horror and the slasher subplot was a surprising, yet not unwelcome addition.
Father Crowder is one of the least likable and unsympathetic protagonists I’ve encountered in a long time. Virtually every decision he made was wrong and reinforced his weaknesses. He may have been a shitty priest, but he was an even worse person.
By the end, I was kinda rooting for an ending in which both Malephar and he died horribly.
I found the the majority of the story to be somewhat predictable once the exorcism took place, but the set pieces around the ending at least made the final scene shocking enough to redeem a lot of the rest of the plot.
The author did too good a job of planting the seeds for many of the twists.
As soon as Danny said he was showing someone else the ropes, i suspected he meant Casey (despite the red herring with the new partner.)
And when Steve seemed to hint at his voyeuristic tendencies, it was confirmed long before the big reveal in which the only real surprise who the next victim was.
I was a little disappointed at not getting the full explanation of Danny’s “origin.” And not hearing the reasoning behind his MO made the big reveal less impactful.
The cartoony artwork made me think that this was a dark comedy. But I picked up the book after a Reddit recommendation, (H/T r/horrorlit) and I was happy to be proven wrong.
The content was decidedly NOT humorous, and at times jarringly gruesome. I was expecting religious horror and the slasher subplot was a surprising, yet not unwelcome addition.
Father Crowder is one of the least likable and unsympathetic protagonists I’ve encountered in a long time. Virtually every decision he made was wrong and reinforced his weaknesses. He may have been a shitty priest, but he was an even worse person.
By the end, I was kinda rooting for an ending in which both Malephar and he died horribly.
I found the the majority of the story to be somewhat predictable once the exorcism took place, but the set pieces around the ending at least made the final scene shocking enough to redeem a lot of the rest of the plot.
The author did too good a job of planting the seeds for many of the twists.
As soon as Danny said he was showing someone else the ropes, i suspected he meant Casey (despite the red herring with the new partner.)
And when Steve seemed to hint at his voyeuristic tendencies, it was confirmed long before the big reveal in which the only real surprise who the next victim was.
I was a little disappointed at not getting the full explanation of Danny’s “origin.” And not hearing the reasoning behind his MO made the big reveal less impactful.