A Head Full of Ghosts

This book has supernatural ghost elements. I just couldn't get into it. 

I love stories where you don't know what to think 🤔 the agony of not knowing exactly what happened is so sweet

This book does much better in delivering the description of the plot than the last book (Horror Movie) that I read from this author. At that same time, I thought this would be a horror novel with scares in it, but this is not a scary book.

I loved the idea of seeing behind one of those ghost hunters' shows and learning more about the impact on the families they film. That is exactly what this book was. But if a supposedly good horror novel is more focused on the family dynamic, then it should also be a good character-driven novel but that’s not what we get.

The characters are part of a typical religious family trying to make a buck on a reality show that exploits people. There is nothing new with this and I wish it were written with a little more tact. The recurring issue of guessing if the sister has an actual mental problem or not is worked on enough. This could have been a great element to the story but is more of a background issue only used at times to make us question the TV show.

Having read Horror Movie and this one I will say that both have a similar idea of seeing behind the scenes, but both fall short of their intentions. Horror Movie shows the author's growth with the quality of writing (dialogue and over all writing) and the ability to make the reader creeped out. On the other hand, both books show a lack of character development or interest that is crucial to character-driven plots.

I liked how this book referenced many other exorcism and possession media and the commentary that Karen's blogs part gives us, but I found the rest of the story a bit cheesy. Maybe this plot is just overdone I don't know. I just didn't enjoy reading this book all that much.

finally a GREAT book omg

i loooooved the structure, the writing style (very straight to the point, not dragging itself out), the non-fiction fiction element. it just made everything feel so real and tangible. i would pay a loot of money to see a movie adaptation 

the way he deconstructed his own “construction” in a very self-aware way was so refreshing too see, especially in the horror genre. so i appreciated both, the story but also the commentary on misogyny, mental health, religious fanatism & how they intersect

the way those pastors really tried to interpret very straightforward and easy to understand things in a way that didn't go against their beliefs was very interesting to see, as well as how feeling like you're in a dead end makes you sink deep into religion, in an often fruitless seek of hope 

by the way, how is he so good at writing “non-fiction” while building such a great story, with stomach churning plot twists ? idk. the last pages really kept me on the edge of my seat. so twisted, yet so good

all the characters felt real, like they didn't behave like book characters but actual people. they were such a mix of confusion, fear, despair, with marjorie's very complex & tormented mind. i still don't know if she just listened to the voices in her head on those last pages, didnt mean to actually kill people or if she just wanted to hurt merry

all that to say that i very much loved reading this book

very much camp. very much ambiguous. very much an ode to the horror genre itself. almost loved but liked a lot.


also, are Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones besties or something? like why did he name a character after him that was super random

This book was ok. It's just another possession story that follows (mostly) what has become the expected format of possession stories. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable either.

I don't really know what to say about this book, I loved most of the parts where Merry is telling the story, however the part of the blog I hated reading and found incredibly annoying. And the end was kind of nothing, it's not bad per say and I did really like Merry's narration of her family's story but the grander story really missed the mark for me.

Wasn't as scary as I was hoping considering the Stephen King blurb, but all in all I really enjoyed this book. There were about 4-5 scenes that really unnerved me & grossed me out and I loved it. I think I like the concept of this book more than the delivery but I'm still here for it. Although I really could've gone without the blog excerpts. They were boring to me & I found myself skimming over them some. But all that to say, I don't think I'm the biggest fan of the demon possession/exorcism trope

this was definitely.......an experience

Paul Tremblay masterfully tackles stories that make you skeptical and leave you wondering. Was that real? Is that true? What if.... But what if....?

This book had me in an insane grip. It gave me goosebumps, it took the wind out of me, AND I didn't want it to end. I would literally be on the train with my face all scrunched up trying to figure stuff out, and at some points I had to read the same paragraph over and over because I was so shocked by what I had read. The characters and the family dynamics feel so real and authentic and we even manage to get doses of heartwarming moments and humor in the midst of sheer dread.

Hell is other people, but A Head Full of Ghosts takes it to an even further and more unsettling place. Five stars. Can't wait to read it again.

Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐

To tell you why I gave this 5 stars would be a bit of a spoiler so I'll just say the unreliable narrator and uncertainty of what's actually going on keeps the reader guessing and unsure of what's going to happen next. It's by no means an action packed horror story but it still moves along at a fast pace and kept me interested in how the events will finally conclude.

4/5 - I have found this book really hard to rate and I feel after I sit a while thinking about it more I will probably change my rating but overall a super quick read and absolutely loved the premise of this book! But there is something about it that is stopping me from giving it a full 5 stars.
On the surface this is a devil possession story, but it's so much more than that. Tragic tale on how the Barrett family deals with Marjorie's physiological changes with devastating consequences.
Not a particularly frightening book but it handles some very heavy topics and as someone who grew up rather religious (not anymore) I found aspects of it quite triggering, in particular John Barrett's approach to Marjorie's illness.
I've seen some reviews that where critical of the blog post aspect of this book, but I rather enjoyed them. Gave a nice break to Merry's childhood persepective of what happened during the time the film crew being in the house. But I wish it was explored more into why Merry was doing this blog post about the show anonymously, unless I missing something or am I reading too much into it.
The ending was unexpected but it didn't come as big shock, I was more intrigued by the questions it left you with, was it really Marjorie that was possessed/ill or was it actually Merry? And I just can't help but feel that Merry is a super unreliable narrator.

Pretty good story overall. Could have done without the various “woke” references throughout.

This is a very clever book, one that I'll remember for structure and style, rather than one of those that got under my skin and made an emotional impact.

Tremblay knows his stuff, he alludes to classic horror novels in a winking way to build up the story for A Head Full of Ghosts.

The blog posts were a nice meta touch, well integrated, and showing a breakdown and criticism of the very story we are reading. The media focus reconciles nicely with the reality-tv exposure plot. The story is more about a television show exploiting a teenage girl and her family and less of an actual story of a disturbed teenage girl. You can just imagine every cheesy graphic and piece of cheap dramatic music that the network put into this fictional documentary.

My interpretation is on the cynical side; the father and the priest were motivated by money/attention to the church respectively. Whether Marjorie is or isn't possessed is clearly not the most important thing given how quickly the psychiatric treatment possibility is blown aside from the family's lack of finances. It's a Breaking Bad sort of situation where a desperate man turns to desperate means to get control of his life and family–in this case a televised exorcism.

Is the book scary? For me, not especially. It is more of an intellectual than emotional ride. I had a lot of fun but I didn't get worked up enough to feel the “chill.” Having the kid, Merry, be at the center did make some disturbing moments though. I felt that vulnerability and helplessness at the idea of something happening to a child.

Part of my emotional distance came from not quite buying into Merry as a character at either stage in her life. Merry as a little girl reads as someone's idea of a “whimsical child” stereotype. Merry as a 23-year old suffers from arrested development. Rather than suggest Tremblay doesn't know how to write girls, I can make sense of this in my head on both counts: Merry is an unreliable narrator and we're seeing her memory of a traumatic childhood experience and of course these are incidents that might have stunted her emotional development. She's an homage to We Have Always Lived in The Castle's Merricat so this presentation makes sense and stays true to the theme of the book.

The twist ending also works well with the theme of uncertainty. What's real and what isn't? What really happened and what is manipulated for the sake of entertainment?

3.5

Was originally going to drop after a while, but it managed to pull me in later in the story. Not perfect, but it was an interesting read.

Was originally going to drop after a while, but it managed to pull me in later in the story. Not perfect, but it was an interesting read.

The book started real silly and after a few minutes of listening I really though I had made a mistake starting this audiobook. But I soldiered on and gave it a little more time and the book got a little better. Yes, there are some scary moments and a satisfying ending. I also wished that I could know more about the characters of the story, and that's a good thing when you're left wondering how would the story continue. But, in the end, I feel that this is a forgettable story. We'll see if they make a decent movie out of it.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay might be my favorite work of possession fiction. Tremblay tells the story of Merry, Marjorie, and their parents through a series of conversations, interview recollections, and blog posts. Each of these different types of chapter has its own voice and style, resulting in outstanding pacing and variety in this novel. The story never felt stagnant or repetitive, and was both highly entertaining, thought provoking, and heart breaking. On the surface this book seems akin to many other exorcism stories (with a LOT of meta references to other horror books and movies). Is teenaged Marjorie possessed, faking a possession, or is she mentally ill? However when told through the POV of her younger sister this volume takes on the postmodern mantle of the unknowable or even non-existent nature of absolute truth. On this, my second reading of this book, I came away with the sense that above all the various characters were possessed by stories and ideas. I do not know if Marjorie or her father or anyone else was actually possessed by a demon. I feel fairly confident that one or both were probably struggling with mental illness, but ultimately I found Merry, like her namesake, to be a somewhat unreliable narrator underscoring the ultimately mysterious and unknowable nature of what really happened. I can see why some readers might find this less satisfying or even less original than desired. I had not read Shirley Jackson the first time I read this book, and I can see why certain elements of this story may have felt predictable to readers
who had. Yet overall I found the combination of voice and style, meta references to other works, and themes to be a really brilliant read. Acting as both a homage to and critique of the possession and exorcism sun-genre of horror, A Head Full of Ghosts is one of my favorite books and one that is likely to haunt my thoughts long after finishing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have no idea if it's a good book or a bad book, but I know for sure that it's one of the most disturbing story I've read. I wanted to read an horror story, and, man, have I been served... Just not the horror I was expecting

I understand why this book gets the attention it does. Wow.

A really good and very unsettling tale about possession as seen through the eyes of 8 year old Merry. Very much a modern day telling of the Exorcist story.

Complicated review. In the begining there was this sense of a gothic horror, girl descending into madness... Like Haunting of Hill House or The Yellow Wallpaper (both amazing)... But after a while the blog posts, interview and cinematic outline of the “possession” ruins it. Its repetative and takes away from Merry's story, which is genuinely horrifying! Had he reformatted this story it could have been amazing.

(Otherwise I'm seriously curious about the short story called the Growing Things, and if its in his short story collection of the same name...hmm.)