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Before The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, there was The Case Against Satan By the twentieth century, the exorcism had all but vanished, wiped out by modern science and psychology. But Ray Russell--praised by Stephen King and Guillermo del Toro as a sophisticated practitioner of Gothic fiction--resurrected the ritual with his classic 1962 horror novel, The Case Against Satan, giving new rise to the exorcism on page, screen, and even in real life. Teenager Susan Garth was "a clean-talking sweet little girl" of high school age before she started having "fits"--a sudden aversion to churches and a newfound fondness for vulgarity. Then one night, she strips in front of the parish priest and sinks her nails into his throat. If not madness, then the answer must be demonic possession. To vanquish the Devil, Bishop Crimmings recruits Father Gregory Sargent, a younger priest with a taste for modern ideas and brandy. As the two men fight not just the darkness tormenting Susan but also one another, a soul-chilling revelation lurks in the shadows--one that knows that the darkest evil goes by many names. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)
User reviews
I believe this may be the crux of the issue for me. For such a slim novel--weighing in at 140 pages--it doesn't quite seem to know exactly where it wants to go. Ultimately, I agree with Laird Barron in his introduction to the novel: This is a story about truth. But it takes a few different paths to get there.
It's a well written novel with, at times, a bit of a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits feel to it. As I read this, going through the dialogue and the descriptive areas, I couldn't help but see it in black and white, with that slightly overdramatic music in the background.
It's a good story, but don't go in expecting scares. There's some horrible things contained between its covers, but not a lot of scares.