Possess definitely has a good premise going for it, after all, with an opening sequence that involves an exorcism, how can it not? Unfortunately, the novel has a few things that didn't quite agree with me. For starters, Bridget, our heroine, is a character that I couldn't even like, let alone relate to. Her friends seem like token characters, especially when they're gay characters as well. She may be witty at times but for the others, I found her mostly annoying and she didn't endear herself to me, that's for sure. Perhaps her one redeeming quality is her love for her brother (clearly shown during the ending) but even that, I doubt sometimes, especially during the middle of the novel. Another factor I disagreed with was Bridget's heritage, described as part Chinese and part Irish. I was extremely excited by the possibility of an ethnic girl keeping butt and I was thrilled that she had the same Chinese name as I did. I had hoped for more ethnic flavor in the book but there was none, which made me wonder why emphasize on the point that she has slightly Chinese features, how different she is in looks and even in name, (because while her last name is Liu, she looks nothing like a Chinese) if you're not going to doing anything with it? It felt like a token mention, an ethnic girl as the heroine but she may as well have been a white girl because it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. The part that really irks me? Bridget having a Chinese name but her brother not having one, his full name being Samuel Michael Liu. Not cool. 
 Story-wise, definitely interesting but filled with predictable twists, and for a book that deals with demons and exorcisms and the like, it's not very scary. The romance wasn't something that I felt connected to as well. Bridget and Matt didn't share any sort of chemistry, to me at least, and their earlier tensions, arguments, bickering are just that and not unresolved sexual tension, not to me anyway. Also, one particular subplot had me going, "WTF?!" mostly because it was so random and just completely unjustified. 
 I guess Possess could have been a great debut but as it is, it's just a good effort. The idea was good though so perhaps Gretchen McNeil's future books will be better.