Rating: 
Summary: Fact is Scarier Than Fiction
Review: Six-year olds shoot and kill fellow playmates. Young kids drive BMW's to school and commits mass murders. With each occurrence, the nation goes soul searching, asking "How could a nice kid commit such atrocity?" Yet, human history itself is chock-full of mass murders, be it in the name of religion, politics, race, or commerce. Martin's book provides the clear answer, pointing to 1) the human condition of self-chosen Sin and 2) Satan's eternal campaign to commit human souls to hell. It's a well-written, erudite, clinical, and chilling read, and definitely not for children or pregnant women. It's far more enlightening and far scarier than any work of fiction out there. Highly recommended.
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Summary: From One Who Knows
Review: Malachi Martin once again snaps Catholics' consciences back into reality. As he told an interviewer once, "...experiencing the supernatural is the fullness of reality." Most people may consider demonic exorcisms as a good scare with lots of split-pea soup, but it's so much more terrifying. The focus on both the possessed and the exorist is well done. Remember that Malachi Martin was an exorcist, and he was sometimes hospitalized for physical injuries from exorcisms he performed in New York. He even encountered the same demons twice or more. He is certainly the authority on this subject and he knew the Devil better than anyone else before his death. Once again I must tip my hat to this valiant priest and prophet!
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Summary: The truth is scarier than fiction
Review: Fr. Martin is an excellent writer, and is most remarkable in this book in that he expresses in words the horror of demonic possession, and the sensations and experiences of the exorcist and possessed. Fr. Martin's work is the most scary book I have ever read, and even more so because it relates true stories. I hardly think he wrote the book to get more people to become Catholic, but if it pricks your conscience, maybe you should think about who and what you're dealing with...
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Summary: Equal Focus on the 'Possessed' and the 'Exorcist'
Review: This book is certainly unique in that it provides the explicit, grim, and often terrifying details on what the experience of being demonically possessed FEELS like to the victim. However, the book is written in a careful, thoughtful manner that is more expository than exploitative. It is also very explicit in the manifold risks that the exorcist takes in trying to evict powerful demonic spirit(s). This book will be actually scarier to someone who is a serious Christian, than to those who are not. A very unusual book, to say the least, and highly recommended for a gripping read.
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Summary: Scary as hell!!
Review: This book was passed on to me by a friend who was pretty much TRYING to get it out of her house because it scared her so much! Now I want to do the same! Malachi Martin, I'm told is THE actual boy the story and later movie, "The Exorcist" was written about. A friend of a close friend of mine has actually sat in on lectures Malachi has given at various places and the odd thing about this is that everytime this friend would go and listen to him speak about posession,he would record the lecture on tape. Then, when he'd go home to play it back, it was always dead air that was recorded.This happened many times at many different lectures and he still cant figure out why- the tape records everything to this day except Martin's voice.....
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Summary: Ken from Cincinnati
Review: It's as interesting reading the variety of views as it is any view of the book itself. I appreciate the chance to express my opinion. First I must say that Martin is a tremendous writer. HE made the book work, even more so than his subject matter. The work is compelling throughout. For that I must give it five stars. But I must agree with readers who doubt the factual nature of the content. I wish I knew for sure, but if I were a librarian, I would have to stable it under "fiction." Several reasons for my skepticism. Martin's commentary throughout, but chiefly in the preface and elsewhere in the beginning, signals a quite narrow, ultra-Catholic agenda. To be fair, the preface might have been written by Martin a little off the deep end. As a younger man, when he wrote the original text, he might have been broader minded. Even as one who comes from a Catholic culture, I find his views of the state of the Catholic Church fossilized and paranoid. All this matters because it appears, by his accounts, that demonic spirits come from an entirely Judeo-Christian tradition, or at least they respond to Catholic ritual. And Martin explains the nature of demons in terms of rebellion against the Old Testament God. Doesn't this narrow the scope of powerful spirits like Lucifer a bit too much? How does evil spirit fit into the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, or hundreds of others, both pre and post Judeo-Christian? I'm not unwilling to believe that evil spirit exists or that exorcisms happen, but I would like to hear about evil possession in a more cosmopolitan scope, not limited to one particular religious belief. Surely Martin had the expertise to offer us some insights. In that respect, Scott Peck's book was better, though Martin is the better writer. In short, I'm suspicious of the book's factualness because Martin draws everything, including demons, into a way too narrow Catholic box to be credible. Only this doubt about Martin's methods and intent mars the book for me. Beyond that, "Hostage" is very fine indeed. And other authors have inspired that kind of doubt too. Carlos Casaneda, for example.
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Summary: Catholic Propaganda
Review: This book is written very well, no question about it. However, it seems designed to SCARE you into belief in God. Perhaps, Mr. Martin was told to go out and write a book to bring in new members. It certainly would not be the first time the Catholics have tried such tactics! The book is just too neat in the moralism behind each case. It is reactionary against "the New Age," individualism, philosophy, and the seeking for spiritual experinces. The Catholic-Christian doctrine is built on the premise of randomly bestowed grace ie., we are on a need to know basis with God. Anything beyond the acceptance of this doctrine makes you a target for Satan and his minions. Don't question authority, don't seek to know more than the Vatican wants you to, if you care about yr soul. Again, this is a fully entertaining read, and SCARY! With the turn of every page you will expect the temperature in your room to drop! Beware, this book is graphic. The first story makes Silence of the Lambs look like Sesame Street.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but with reservations
Review: Fr. Martin's accounts of five cases of exorcism are not for the faint of heart. The sort of diabolic possession that Fr. Martin describes is all too true, and this book serves as a sort of wake-up call to those who would think otherwise. Fr. Martin is his usual captivating self throughout the book -- he really knew how to tell a story -- and the book is hard to put down. The accounts themselves certainly seem credible, though the extraneous commentary of Fr. Martin, especially in the original preface, seems out of place and sometimes at odds with the Catholicism he claimed to champion while he lived. I'm surprised that he didn't edit some of it out in this later edition. My only other concern is that he seems to be more graphic and explicit than necessary in recounting the exorcisms. I realize that much was edited from the original transcripts, but more should have been cut, in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse Of The Dark Kingdom
Review: Even if one is anti-Catholic I would hope the person who reads this respects the concepts involved here. Many Exorcists pay a tremendous price for expelling demons and devils. I found myself overwelmed by the awfullness of the stories. Be thankfull of the way the Catholic church has developed it's ritual for exorcising. It seldom fails and is often the victim's last hope when medical help is impossible. The most interesting story was of a familiar unclean spirit. It almost drove its victim to suicide. I am not saying the Catholic church is the only religious group able to free possessed ones. But what I think is most interesting about this book is how little control a couple of its victims had in that they did not invite this upon themselves. People who experiment with the occult invite possession but a few victims in this book were innocently chosen. If you don't believe in the devil and that he has a kingdom you may very well believe after reading this book. Spine tingling reading! My only complaint was it was too descriptive of the Evil ones.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely superb
Review: I recommend this title without hesitation. It's hard to put down. Fr. Martin's insight into the interplay between good and evil that affects all of us on a daily basis makes this a must read. This book strengthened my faith and my deep respect for the power of Love and the Mercy of God.
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