I was thrilled to stumble upon this book at my university library because I never knew that The Exorcist was an actual book. I haven’t seen the movie since I’m a scaredy-cat but I knew I’ll fare a little better with books.
I read the prologue and the first chapter and I could not bring myself to go on any further. While there were a few spooky hints the writing simply plods and I was highly aware of each and every word and sentence. The writing is clunky, to say the least. I was annoyed at characters, not because the characters were annoying, but they were annoying because of the writing. Blatty’s persistence in using short sentences filled with adjectives contributed to this:
“Regular breathing. Heavy. Deep.” and “Sharon Spencer. Fresh. From Oregon.”
That just really annoyed me and it didn’t work in with the rest of the writing. The dialogue was somewhat cliched and patronising. When I got in the second page of the second chapter and read, once again, that the new character was described in those short, annoying, adjective – I just gave up.
Perhaps I’ll come back to it again in the future. But for now, I think I might go get the movie.
Mad Bibliophile 