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By Francis J. Flynn

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Satirical, Humour

Pages: 234

ISBN: 9781857568318

ASIN: B00T6R4JQ4

Format: Paperback, eBook (Kindle)

Publication date: 2015

Publisher: Janus Publishing Company Ltd

Type: Book, Novel

*I received a free ecopy in exchange for an honest review. No compensation has been given and I write this book review willingly. A big thanks to Francis J. Flynn and BookTasters!*

Introduction

Now, what a title: Exorcism! Shocking, I know. But when it comes to horror stories, whether movies or books, my favorites are about possession (demonic, please). Why? I don’t know but I find it fascinating and horrifying. So, when I was offered by BookTasters (thanks!) to read The Exorcism of Little Billy Wagner, how could I say no? It was right there in the title!

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. In my opinion, while it has some strong flaws, it’s also pretty enjoyable and I had a good feeling reading it.

Care to know all of my reasons and why it’s a good book nevertheless?

Read on, folks!

Come with me into the abyss of a possession story…

(My review is not that dark, don’t worry.)

Blurb

The frantic parents of Little Billy Wagner are at a loss as to what to do when their son shows signs of demonic possession. When the medical community can offer no answers, they turn to their Catholic Church. The Archbishop a prominent hawk in the war on Satan is more than willing to help the Wagners. Though in precarious health (His bypasses had bypasses), he always knew The Evil One would show up on his watch and he s now ready to send in the exorcists. But first, the Church has to determine whether Little Billy Wagner is demonically possessed. Enter the handsome Father Leopold Mackenzie. Father Leo wants to be a priest. He believes God wants him to be a good priest. He aspires to return to a parish in Bolivia where he spent many happy days in his favorite llama-wool sweater and was accepted by the kind Boliviano parishioners. To make this happen, he just needs to do a good job on the Billy Wagner matter and keep the lovely Veronica Fields, from the parish’s conversion class, far away from him and in moments of weakness not think of ways to make her his rectory mate. Father Leo visits the Wagners and soon determines that Little Billy is clearly possessed, but, the question is, by what? Knowing an underlying medical cause must first be ruled out, Father Leo starts gathering information and medical reports and hires the famed Jesuit psychiatrist, the dhoti-wearing Father Caspar Wieland, MD/PhD/SJ. Meanwhile, the Archbishop gathers his exorcism team (including bringing in ex-special forces Monsignor Krebs, despite his handling of the exorcism in The River City Delirium Tremens Burro Incident ) and prepares to make the case to the Vatican to get the authority to send in the exorcists. Can Father Leo stop a Rush to Exorcism before it s too late? Or is Little Billy demonically possessed, and by trying to stop the exorcism, is Father Leo allowing Satan and his legion into America s heartland?

The Positive Sides

The best point of this book is definitely its brazen humour. It’s pretty good, funny, and sometimes dark—it also has a habit of bouncing at you when you least expect it! Sometimes it’s sarcastic, other times ironic, but always good and well thought. Oftentimes I would find myself smiling, chuckling or outright laughing. A very good point indeed because not all books manage that with me! (I find most humour in books fall flat, not because I’m hard to make laugh, haha.)

Also, while I knew this was a horror book, I didn’t expect it to get so dark and gorey right in the beginning! But gosh was it good, creepy and satisfying! I loved it!!!! I remember reading it late at night with eyes wide opened. Ha ha, I had to take a break from reading for a few seconds, then resume it. Talk about a surprise!

Moreover, I really enjoyed the gruesome plot of possession, and how the priests would be conflicted towards each other and this case. It showed that priests are human too, flawed, though they have a good will. The plot kept me reading as I wanted to know what truly happened to Little Billy Wagner and those priests. What horrors would unfold. I’m a sucker for possession stories (bad, I know *shakes her head but #noregrets*)!

This book gave me a good feeling. I mean, when I read the book, it was highly enjoyable (despite its weaknesses) and I cared about the characters, who were entertaining, human and fun. I can’t really explain it, but when I resumed reading every night, I would smile and feel cozy and calm. As though I was pulled into the book and I was fine with it. Or maybe meeting with an old friend? My stomach felt light and so did my heart. Cheesy, I know, but true.

The Negative Sides

I found there were unnecessary repetitions. For example, the word “cookie” appeared twice in the same sentence and the author rarely makes use of pronouns, too; there are many more occurrences of same words in a single sentence/paragraph, which becomes annoying and tiresome enough to roll one’s eyes. It sometimes comes across as poor writing, but I don’t believe that’s the case because the rest is well described, the characters are interesting, etc. I would just suggest using more synonyms, pronouns or rephrasing. Otherwise, it’s the worst flaw of this book, and that makes it not so bad. 😉

Another thing that bugged me was how unclear the transitions are from one character to another. I often had to go back a few sentences to understand we’d switched characters. This quickly became confusing.

Lastly, there is what I call “backstory dump”. You switch to another character and it’s in the present (I mean they’re doing something NOW) and then suddenly you’re in their past for you don’t know how many pages and you kind of lost the whole point to begin with. Their backstories are interesting and necessary, but I think information could be sprinkled here and there without breaking the rhythm so much.

In Conclusion

But you know what? Despite these flaws some would consider either too major or numerous, I rather liked it and enjoyed my reading experience. So, I give The Exorcism of Little Billy Wagner a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I encourage any horror or humour enthusiastic to pick it up for its great and true characters, its good horror and gore scenes, as well as fun plot and humour.

If you want to learn more about the author, you can visit his Twitter account (and follow him!), you can also follow him on Goodreads. You can also add The Exorcism of Little Billy Wagner to your bookshelves on Goodreads and LibraryThing

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