Have you checked out Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s redesigned Eleventh Stack blog yet?
Eleventh Stack is run by a group of library workers who are passionate about books, movies and music — and was originally envisioned as a place to explore all the cool stuff at the Main Library, which is home to about a million items. Recently, they’ve branched out to explore the rest of the Carnegie Library system!
Littsburgh loves the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — and in an effort to spread the word about the excellent work they’re doing — we’ll be highlighting posts from the Eleventh Stack from time to time…
If you’re looking for reading recommendations, we highly recommend you bookmark the Eleventh Stack — and give Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh a follow on Facebook and Twitter!
If you’re an adult, there’s a chance you remember your time in high school one of two ways—either with great fondness or utter contempt. Whatever your experience, there are certain universal events that each one of us probably remembers: your best friend and your adventures together, your homecoming or prom, the first time you snuck out of the house to go to a party, your first heartbreak, that time you had to kidnap your best friend and perform an exorcism on her …
All right, maybe one of those situations is unique to Grady Hendrix’s latest novel, My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since Abby’s disastrous birthday party at a roller-skating rink in 1982. Now it’s 1988 and the two are entering their junior year. One night, they decide to drop acid with some friends and Gretchen wanders off. She’s found before morning, but something in her changes after that night. Sure, she claims she’s fine, but Abby—always the pragmatist—thinks something is seriously wrong with her friend’s increasingly odd behavior. Abby’s conclusion? Gretchen has become possessed by a demon.
Like, sooooo totally high school, amiright?
Hendrix first grabbed my attention with 2014’s Horrorstör, an excellent haunted house story set in a Cleveland-based IKEA knockoff. Drawing comparisons to the work of Chuck Palahniuk in my mind, it’s delightfully subversive and I also recommend it. I’m still eagerly awaiting the television adaptation.
Like in Horrorstör, there are some wonderfully disgusting things that happen in My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Hendrix’s writing has a way of getting under your skin until you just want to tear it off. I won’t get into too many gory details, but there’s one scene involving a tapeworm that essentially ruined spaghetti for me.
True, it does take over one hundred pages for the plot to really kick in, but those pages are essential for building Abby and Gretchen’s friendship. Without those pages, you wouldn’t care about the two when the titular exorcism takes place. Much more than a regular horror story, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is about the power and longevity of friendships.
Picture a world where John Hughes directed The Exorcist and you’ve got the world of My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
Ross works as a Clerk at the Mt. Washington branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He loves reading books and watching movies and will often ramble about the two on Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Eleventh Stack. As of this writing he’s never had to exorcise any of his friends.
This post sponsored by our friends at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Brockport, PA — The WCoNA Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia® (here and after WCoNA) is pleased to announce its longlist Read more
“A relevant, harrowing mystery with page-turning suspense.” ―Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Just the Nicest Couple From Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
“Sidle Creek is one of the best story collections I’ve read in a long time.” –Ron Rash, New York Times Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
From the Publisher: "For more than fifty years, we have been waging, but not winning, the war on cancer. We’re Read more
"Myriad has been in so many time streams she’s lost count – hiding from her feelings about her brother’s death Read more
“Beautiful, vivid writing and a power-packed plot . . . I truly loved it.” –Lauren Tarshis, bestselling author of the Read more
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Read more
About the Author: "Ken Gormley is president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. A lawyer, constitutional scholar, and author, Gormley's work Read more
"Living in Pittsburgh, and truth be told at loose ends since the blue jays, how could we expect to hold Read more
From the Publisher: The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans Read more
From the Publisher: The confluence in the title of this debut collection from Samantha DeFlitch describes the meeting of three Read more
"From her bench in the park near her house, the woman who Rebecca so beautifully and poignantly portrays quietly carries Read more
"Slam came to Pittsburgh in the early ’90s, and it still has a home here. But two long-time practitioners also Read more
Selected by Cheryl Strayed for the Kore Press Institute Memoir Award From the Publisher: "Certain and Impossible Events orbits the Read more
"Sewickley, the Shawnee word for sweet water, derived from the tribe’s belief that the borough’s shores were a little sweeter Read more
"After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with an English degree, Sharon Flake could have concentrated on fiction for adults, Read more
From the publisher: "Soon after her husband's tragic death, Robin Besher makes a startling discovery: He had recklessly blown through Read more
