William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, has died at age 89.
I remember about a quarter of a century ago, I finished one book before bedtime, and went “I know! I’ll read the first chapter of The Exorcist and then go to sleep.”
At 3:30 AM I finished the book. It was that good. William Friedkin’s very faithful movie adaptation was also great (indeed, arguably the best horror movie of all time), but it helped that he had great source material to start with.