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Reagan starts to be visited by what Chris thinks is an imaginary friend named Captain Howdy. It starts innocently enough through the Oija Board, but soon Reagan becomes inhabited with the demon. She begins shouting obscenities, shaking the bed in convulsions and then wetting it and exhibiting multiple personalities. This is where the book becomes both very interesting and ultimately frustrating. Chris starts taking her to the family doctor. The doctor is convinced she doesn’t need psychiatric help, that what is wrong is a physical condition with the body. They do all of these tests on her, give her Ritalin, and theorize that she may have Frontal Lobe disorder in her brain. When all of the tests come up negative, the doctor has to concede and refer her to a psychiatrist. They can’t do anything either except give her Librium to try to calm her down.
One evening Chris has a dinner party and meets Father Carris for the first time. He is a Jesuit priest and a specialist in psychiatry and eventually becomes involved in the Reagan case. Also in the meantime a movie director friend of Chris’ is found dead outside her home and a detective begins coming around asking questions. Reagan has deteriorated to the point of being strapped down to the bad and is visited by many demonic personalities and can speak in many different languages. By this time the book starts to become a little frustrating because I’m saying “Do the exorcism already!” Father Carris want to make absolutely sure Reagan is possessed before he gets permission from the church for the exorcism.
It is an interesting book from a psychological/psychiatric perspective and how all of these doctors try to rule out every kind of mental disorder. There is also some interesting exposition about the history of satanism, possession, and exorcism. The demonic scenes are kind of fun to read also and how the demon tries to trick and cajole Father Carris. I listened to the audio book and it was narrated very well by the author. He had some great accents for some of these characters where it really did play like a movie in your mind. The characters are well developed enough that the reader can identify with them.
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I’m pretty sure I saw this movie, or at least part of it, ages ago. The only scene I remember was the part where the girl’s head starts spinning around. So, that’s what the rest of the story is? Interesting. I might have to give it a read someday.
Comment by Jen 12.09.09 @ 11:19 pmLeave a comment
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