"Yet I think the demon's target is not the possessed; it is us . . . the observers . . . every person in this house. And I think---I think the point is to make us despair; to reject our own humanity, Damien: to see ourselves as ultimately bestial; as ultimately vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy." 
 Some years ago, I gave a school presentation on the subject of churchly handling with exorcism, divided into Catholic and Protestant aspects. Exorcism was an interesting topic to study more profoundly, but at that point of time, both Blatty's novel and the movie adaption(s) were only familiar to me by name. The single occasion to be introduced to exorcism was an alarmingly disappointing storyline in the American soap opera "Days of our Lives", where a beloved heroine, Marlena Evans, was possessed by the devil himself twenty years ago (luckily, this storyline was never picked up again, although it remains unforgotten because of its ridiculousness). After reading some enthusiastic reviews on William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist", I recently decided to give the novel a try. 
 "The Exorcist" deals with a twelve-year-old girl possessed by a demon, a plot which seems to be so well-known and yet managed to surprise me at a lot of opportunities. The girl, Regan Teresa MacNeil, starts to show irritating symptoms and becomes inexplicably ill, much to the sorrow of her mother Chris MacNeil, a successful actress. As time goes by, Regan begins to rapidly experience disturbing mental and physical changes to her character and her body, speaking foreign languages, refusing to eat or drink, becoming violent by using outrageous vocable and showing extraordinary abilities for a girl of her age. Chris at first tries to think of psychological reasons like Regan not being able to cope with her parents' divorce, but soon has to realize something else has taken control over her daughter's soul. Chris turns to Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, asking for his help with her desperate intention to save her daughter's life - and this is basically the point where the true horror behind Blatty's story starts to be unveiled. 
 Not knowing the film, I will not be able to judge Blatty's ability to describe the demon's appearance in Regan's body, but I found some astounding images of the possessed Regan on the internet, which allowed me to develop an accurate idea of the physical extents. 
 The true horror behind the story does not lie in the demon possession itself - it lies in the fact that Blatty made something as terrifying as this happen to a twelve-year-old girl living in happiness and relatively wealthy circumstances. It's impossible to imagine what an experience like this could do to a child's mind, an opinion the author seemed to share, since he did not in one single part of the story focus on Regan's point-of-view. During the first half, Chris MacNeil was the story's protagonist, allowing us to experience the dimensions of the demon's power through the eyes of a desperate and helpless mother, while the second half of the novel dealt mainly with Father Karras and his attempts to exorcise the devil and rescue Regan's life. Surprisingly, this part dragged more than the first one for me, since I was more interested in how Chris dealt with the awkward situation, especially since a lot of time was spent with Chris trying to find logical reasons for Regan's changes before she turned to Father Karras for help. 
 The characters were especially well-developed and while not always likeable, felt very realistic and relatable to me. The novel included some minor plotlines like those of Chris' servants, a police detective and a close friend of Chris'. Each and every character who was introduced throughout the course of the story had an important role to play within the plot, which remained character-driven nevertheless. That's the way I like a book to be written, and judging the prose and the structure, William Peter Blatty executed it excellently. The only minor quality decline of the novel occured at the ending which was a little bit too rushed after a lot of set-up. However, Blatty did a perfect job with trying to maintain the mysterious aspects of the novel by not answering all the questions previously raised by him. 
 "We mourn the blossoms of May because they are to whither; but we know that May is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revolution of that solemn circle which never stops---which teaches us in our height of hope, ever to be sober, and in our depth of desolation, never to despair." 
 "You come to God and you have to figure if there is one, then he must need a million years' sleep every night or else he tends to get irritable. Know what I mean? He never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does lots of commercials." For a moment Dyer looked at her, and then said quietly, "But if all of the evil in the world makes you think that there might be a devil, then how do you account for all the good in the world?" 
 Isn't Blatty's writing style amazing? If you haven't read this and aren't too easily terrified, I can only recommend reading the novel.