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A review by sillylilsith
Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz
3.0
“Who needs a policeman when you have a priest?”
•
Read for a disturbing exorcism story with a truly gruesome finale
•
I don’t read stories about possessions often because they freak me out and give me nightmares, but I heard such good things about Janz’s Exorcist Falls that I wanted to give it a read.
The copy I received is split into two parts: Exorcist Road and Exorcist Falls. Exorcist Road is the novella that Janz wrote first and it was truly excellent. It gave strong The Exorcism vibes, but still felt like its own story. I read it in one sitting because it was so intense, I couldn’t put it down! The ending was shocking and I could not wait to dive into Exorcist Falls.
After part one ends, we pick up right where we left off in part two and dive right back into the craziness. Unfortunately after a wild opening, the pacing becomes a lil inconsistent. But the biggest flaw is in the characters. The evil characters are written pretty perfectly, but the rest I struggled with. Especially the females and the main character. Both parts of the book share the same narrator, Father James Crowder, and he is hard to root for. He’s creepy and whiny and off putting. Maybe this was done of purpose? Either way I did not like him at all. He really took away from my favorite part of demonic possession stories, which is the spiritual hero. We got glimpses of the spiritual hero in Father Sutherland and Father Patterson (two of the best characters overall), but they were very much used as side characters. The women in the story are either victims or eye candy with no in between (not even the nuns are safe). This would be more of a let down if they played larger roles and if not for the fact that none of the characters were ones you could really connect with anyway.
Overall, I did like the way that Exorcist Falls played out. Lots of twists and turns and some of the action scenes were pretty epic. The ending didn’t totally sit right with me, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have me shook! If you’re into demonic possession horror stories then I’d recommend you try this one, but if you aren’t sure or haven’t read one before then I’d probably skip it.
•
Read for a disturbing exorcism story with a truly gruesome finale
•
I don’t read stories about possessions often because they freak me out and give me nightmares, but I heard such good things about Janz’s Exorcist Falls that I wanted to give it a read.
The copy I received is split into two parts: Exorcist Road and Exorcist Falls. Exorcist Road is the novella that Janz wrote first and it was truly excellent. It gave strong The Exorcism vibes, but still felt like its own story. I read it in one sitting because it was so intense, I couldn’t put it down! The ending was shocking and I could not wait to dive into Exorcist Falls.
After part one ends, we pick up right where we left off in part two and dive right back into the craziness. Unfortunately after a wild opening, the pacing becomes a lil inconsistent. But the biggest flaw is in the characters. The evil characters are written pretty perfectly, but the rest I struggled with. Especially the females and the main character. Both parts of the book share the same narrator, Father James Crowder, and he is hard to root for. He’s creepy and whiny and off putting. Maybe this was done of purpose? Either way I did not like him at all. He really took away from my favorite part of demonic possession stories, which is the spiritual hero. We got glimpses of the spiritual hero in Father Sutherland and Father Patterson (two of the best characters overall), but they were very much used as side characters. The women in the story are either victims or eye candy with no in between (not even the nuns are safe). This would be more of a let down if they played larger roles and if not for the fact that none of the characters were ones you could really connect with anyway.
Overall, I did like the way that Exorcist Falls played out. Lots of twists and turns and some of the action scenes were pretty epic. The ending didn’t totally sit right with me, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have me shook! If you’re into demonic possession horror stories then I’d recommend you try this one, but if you aren’t sure or haven’t read one before then I’d probably skip it.