This book came with the tagline of "The Most Terrifying Novel Ever Written."

What a load of shite.

CHARACTERS

I was never once scared by this book. I didn't feel enough of a connection to the characters to ever feel in any way frightened for them.

To put the main characters in some perspective, let's compare them with those with Stephen King's book The Shining.

Before anything remotely scary starts to happen in The Shining, King takes time to build up an atmosphere of tension. He develops his characters by giving us a quick glimpse of their backstories, along with several chapters of them interacting with each other and showing us who they are as people. This helps you connect with them and you end up feeling a sense of dread and fear for them when they get to the conflict.

I didn't feel that at all with these characters. They were basic and lifeless. The author took no time to develop them. We were given basic outlines - Actress Mother (Chris), Young Child (Regan) - and then we hopped right into the creepy. I don't think I had even hit page 30 before the stuff began to happen. We had no time to see the mother's personality, nor what Regan was like before the possession. The mother's alcoholic British friend is ridiculous and irritating. Remind me why Chris lets him into her house and near her child?

He eventually is murdered by the demon, and oh look, I didn't give one shit about it.

There are some other background characters like Regan's tutor and the housekeepers who work for Chris, who might as well be cardboard cut-outs, a ridiculous TV detective-esque policeman, and some random priest I didn't care about.

THE MAIN ISSUE

What this book was, ultimately, was disgusting. It was just plain, cheap, gross out nonsense. It didn't even qualify as horror in my book. There are only so many times you can describe somebody shit on an altar or a little girl violate herself with a crucifix before it loses its shock value and becomes ridiculous and unbearably forced.

Say it with me, guys - GROSS DESCRIPTIONS AND THINGS THAT SHOCK YOUR READERS IS NOT HORROR AND WEARS OFF VERY QUICKLY. RELYING ON SHOCK VALUE TO CARRY YOUR ENITRE BOOK OR MOVIE WILL NEVER WORK.

I had to make myself finish the book and even then I was wondering why I had continued past the first few pages.

Why this is considered a horror classic I will never know.