A Head Full of Ghosts
Ratings218
Average rating3.9
Like a pastiche of all kinds of horror culture. #bookclub4m psychological horror genre
Heel griezelig en atmosferisch verhaal met ambigu einde. Doorgaans ben ik niet voor dubbelzinnige of onduidelijke conclusies, maar hier vond ik het einde net heel toepasselijk en schitterend gedaan. Kippenvel.
Ik ben benieuwd naar meer van deze auteur.
A Head Full of Ghosts by horror master Paul Tremblay is an experience which I would sum up as, “What the hell happened?”
A Head Full of Ghosts is about the familial strife of the Barret family. The mom, distant and frustrated. The dad, on the brink of religious zealotry. The younger sister Merry, both a part of the craziness and separate from it due to her age and naivete. And Marjorie, a 14ish-year-old young woman who may or may not have a head full of ghosts. The story covers the small amount of time before Marjorie's exorcism. Yes, I said exorcism. A Head Full of Ghosts isn't your typical ghost story as it is a story of horror but also one of psychological trauma.
“On the morning of the exorcism, I stayed home from school.”
The story has many distinct parts of a horror possession story. It has plenty of nods to The Exorcist, arguably the most famous possession story in the history of writing and cinema. Like The Exorcist, Marjorie vomits, spews profanities, makes inappropriate sexual comments, dark and sinister voices, and levitation. And, just like The Exorcist, all of the actions terrify Marjorie's loved ones. They scare them to the point of madness.
The difference between The Exorcist and A Head Full of Ghosts is that while the acts Marjorie performs are terrifying, we aren't sure what is going on. We are, as readers, able to make a decisive call on whether she is or is not haunted as Tremblay plays his cards close to his chest. He plays every scene both ways. Is Marjorie a person who has an extreme mental illness? Or is she a child that has been invaded by an unearthly demonic presence?
“Ideas. I'm possessed by ideas. Ideas that are as old as humanity, maybe older, right? Maybe those ideas were out there just floating around before us, just waiting to be thought up. Maybe we don't think them, we pluck them out from another dimension or another mind.”
The story is told, mostly, through the eyes of a no grown Merry. A somber woman living a life of quietude and off the earnings of the TV show about her family. Marjorie's experience was televised to be consumed by the masses. Television is not the truth. This adds to the unease about the original story of what happened to Marjorie. Merry meets with a writer to discuss writing Merry's life and experiences at age 8 to be put into a tell-all book.
The book bounces back and forth between the recollections of a now older and wiser Merry and the young child Merry who sees everything through the lens of an 8-year-old. The memories are painful for her to live through again. Because she is an unreliable narrator and children see a lot of what they want to see, we get mostly a child's view of the monstrous happenings in the household. While Merry talks very candidly about the events that tore her family apart and were filmed for live television, she admits that these were her memories, and things could be different.
“I sneak into your room when you are asleep, Merry-monkey. I've been doing it for weeks now, since the end of summer. You're so pretty when you're asleep. Last night, I pinched your nose shut until you opened your little mouth”
At the beginning of the story, Marjorie has been acting up. There is strain and tension between the children's parents. When someone has a mental breakdown, that puts natural pressure on parents, they want what is best for their child. However, what is best differs significantly between Merry's mother and father. Merry's mother wants Marjorie to see psychiatrists and be put on medication, while Merry's father wants Majorie to rely on the church and ask God for help.
As events progressed and the family suffered severe financial hardship, the family agreed to have Marjorie's exorcism and the preceding psychological trauma that she was inflicting on herself and the household members to be televised. This pain will be televised.
“After your performed the exorcism, how did you know that demon wasn't still in there, hiding? How do you know it didn't go in a hibernation state, quieting down to come out later, years and years later when no one would be around to help? Hey, how do you know if the wrong spirit left? What if you expelled the person's real spirit and only the demon's spirit was there to take its place? If I believed in any of that stuff, I'd be afraid that was going to happen to me.”
It is a gross sort of consuming and voyeurism that the audience participates in, the blogger/reviewer/reader included. The cut-ins to the blogger's critiques, which jarring, play an essential role in the narrative. What is truth? What is a ghost story? Merry does not speak the truth, the reality show does not speak the truth, and indeed, the conjecture of a random horror blogger doesn't. So what the hell happened?
Everything could be true, or all of it could be a lie.
Beyond the terrifying scenes of vomit spewing like fountains and gore, what the hell is going on? I, as a reader, spent many pages screaming, “Please, someone, help this child.” But the only adults in the room seem to want to abuse her in different ways? Is abuse ok if you are trying to save this child's mortal soul? Or is she faking the whole thing for attention? Is she mad, is she possessed? We shall never know.
“There's nothing wrong with me, Merry. Only my bones want to grow through my skin like the growing things and pierce the world.”
A Head Full of Ghosts is all about perception. What is horror to one person is entertainment to another. What is psychological trauma to one person is trafficking in demons in another. At the heart of it is either a confused and terrified girl or a mastermind of manipulation. It is levels upon levels. Tremblay showed some serious skills crafting such a meta psychological story.
Also, Head Full of Ghost has terrifying visceral scenes. Terrifying! They are spread throughout the story like one would sprinkle salt on food. Tremblay never lets the reader relax or become numb to the gore. They are surprised on you like a popping balloon. He never lets you forget that, yes, this is a psychological story in a meta form, but he is also a damn fine gore writer and will scare the hell out of you.
I feel trapped by this story in an ethical and psychological spiral, one that can never be satiated. The story is done, the ending has happened, and no conclusion shall be found, which in itself is another kind of horror—ones of the mind, feelings, rationality, and spirit. We readers are dirty in our voyeurism and consumers shoveling the contents of Marjorie's descent into madness into our minds page by page. If you read this, you will not be satisfied. But, this is a brilliant and compelling story. The ideas will cling onto you like a crusty barnacle that draws blood if you try and scrape it off. That in itself is worth the price of admission.
Was she or wasn't she? We will never know, but damn, is it an interesting book to read.
That was...quite the twist. I want so badly for the last sentence to imply something but I don't think it does. My rating of this book is likely biased by what I was hoping for from the description and the way the story was developing, and that not being what happened. I felt a bit let down. However, the writing is really good, and if I had been open to the type of twist it has, maybe I'd have felt differently. Slight spoiler, maybe: it looks like it presents a story where the family has to decide, is it mental illness or is it supernatural. And while it technically leaves me asking that, it feels like it's answered and any asking I have is based solely on the last sentence, which is probably meaningless.
4.4.
A story that made the hairs on my arms rise, after I finished reading.
This is The Exorcist, updated for the era of reality TV and blogs, both of which are main parts of the book's narrative.
A 14-year old girl, Marjorie, acts strangely and hears voices in her head. Is she mentally ill, or possessed by the devil? Her father thinks the latter, her Mom is skeptical, but both Mom and Dad, driven by desperation perhaps, accept the offer of a television network to film the family as they deal with Marjorie on the assumption that she is, indeed, yes, possessed by the devil.
The story is told from the POV of Marjorie's 8-year old sister, Merry, both from her vantage point of an adult, fifteen years later, as she's interviewed by an author writing the story of her family, and of her 8-year old self.
Interspersed throughout are the blogposts (fifteen years hence) of Karen, who dissects the reality TV show of the Barrett family through the lenses of pop culture.
There are truly chilling moments in the novel, moments that convince you that Marjorie is indeed supernaturally cursed. Then the next chapter convinces you otherwise.
But the tale is more than just about demonic possession (or the mistaken assumption thereof) and is also about the disintegration of the Barrett family as they deal with Marjorie. It's also about how the seemingly twisted idea of televising a family trauma becomes a new normal, and how that very act affect a family's decisions and emotional state.
I read this in fewer than five sittings, because the story was just that compelling. Is she or isn't she? Will they or won't they? Then the shock of the ending.
Recommended for fans of horror looking for a modern twist to a classic trope.
Solid, unnerving possession horror
Not every aspect of this worked for me. The blog entries and the reality show frameworks felt kind of unnecessary.
But the parts that worked. Woo-boy. I'm going to be thinking about this one for awhile.
Good horror is good horror. That's all I want these days and this delivered that and than some. The last third took me to a place I truly didn't expect. I've now read all of Tremblay's novels and inevitably I'll be following his work for years to come.
Re-read: So, so good. Leans into the ambiguity and references to make the scary bits (and, as for me, there are scary bits in this book) all the more effective.
Maybe because I'd heard so many good things about it, this book was something of a disappointment. It's an intriguing premise of a book, sort of a scaled-down version of House of Leaves, doing for possession/exorcism what HoL did for haunted houses. (There's even a Navidson reference.)
The story at the center is of a teen, Marjorie, whose erratic behavior leads one of her parents to believe she's possessed and bring in a priest to perform an exorcism. The exorcism becomes the subject of a reality TV program, which makes up another layer of the story. This is all being recounted by Merry, Marjorie's younger sister, as an adult. There's also a blogger whose posts comment on the reality show, who turns out to be adult Merry writing under a pseudonym.
It's an intriguing premise that never quite worked for me. Though the writing style was pretty good, it didn't reach the kind of complexity to story needed. Merry appears to be inspired by Merricat from We Have Always Lived in the Castle– She even poisons her entire family near the end of the story–but her voice never achieves the perfect balance of sinister and innocent, knowing and naive that Jackson achieved. While Tremblay can be complimented for even trying, the failure leaves something of a hole in the emotional heart of the novel.
The blog entries are a particular weak point. Some people hate the Johnny Truant sections of HoL, but at least Johnny felt like a real character. The blogs are written in a quirky, hyperactive style which winds up feeling like the narrative equivalent of the Steve Buscemi “How do you fellow kids?” meme. They also feel superfluous, the analysis they provide not serving to deepen the story but more to lampshade some weaker elements (some pretty direct rips from “The Exorcist”) and flatter or impress the reader (shout-outs to “The Castle of Otranto”, “The Haunting of Hill House” and various other Gothic classics).
The central premise of the title is the notion that stories and ghosts are analogous, possible stand-ins for each other, an interesting idea the novel never quite lives up to.
This was such a gripping read! It took everything I could muster not to devour this book in a single sitting. The narrative keeps you guessing in a way that's absolutely engrossing and the characters feel hauntingly real, making for a story whose stakes are of paramount importance. And one that, more than once, I found to be truly terrifying.
The whole experience is a bit of a gut punch and I can totally see why this one might not be to every reader's taste, but this horror fan was floored. I've gotta check out more of this guy's work - and soon!
I wouldn't describe this as a horror. To me I wasn't scared or frightened. It is a very clever and depressingly accurate look at a society that allows hideous things to happen to a child/disabled person. If, however, any of that comes as a shock to a you, I do wonder where you've been living these last two decades.
This was my first Paul Tremblay and I'll certainly be reading more from him!
Just the right mix of creepy and eerie, with a few shocking moments to keep the tension up. I've not read many possession stories so this was definitely an interesting one for me and I'm fairly new to the genre.
I quite liked the split narration between Merry telling her story to the author and the TV show being told via blog posts. This kept a level of uncertainty throughout and really makes you realise how easily a TV show could change the perception of what is being shown.
Was it scary? No, not really, but it had an unrelenting sense of dread. You were anxiously awaiting what would happen next and you were never quite sure what direction it would go.
I hate reality TV, so I loved the dissection of it in this novel, it really makes you question what you're actually watching.
I am willing to read more books by Tremblay.
(This review can also be found on my blog.)
cw: menstruation, explicit sexual content, demonic possession, homophobic slurs
I think this is the first audiobook I've ever listened to in its entirety! I was doing busywork at my job and had run out of new podcast eps (which never happens to me!), so I sorted my TBR by random and went through until I found a book that a) had an audiobook format, b) was available to listen to now through my library, and c) had a narrator whose voice I liked. Usually it's a struggle to find something that fits all three of these, but A Head Full of Ghosts nailed it!
This was such a compelling read and I will probably end up purchasing a physical copy later on to re-read. The narrator, Joy Osmanski, did a phenomenal job and I felt pulled right into the story. The point-of-view is that of an adult reflecting on her experiences as a young child. I thought this was really well-done, because we get a really innocent perspective that realistically contains more mature insights. It also switches a lot between past and present in a way that I think really worked with the story.
I was a bit anxious starting this out, because it explicitly states in the blurb that the MC's older sister is displaying symptoms of schizophrenia. While I can't speak directly to the rep (which may not be great, especially considering some stuff that goes on toward at the end that I can't discuss without spoilers), I do want to address the concern that this links mental illness and demonic possessions. Because it doesn't. I thought it was clear as a reader that this was a commentary on the danger of ignoring science in favor of superstition. To me, the implication was that, had Marjorie's experience been treated seriously and as a medical concern, things would have turned out a lot differently for the Barrett family.
While this certainly had its spooky bits and while I would probably file it under the horror genre, it wasn't outright scary, so if you're easily frightened (like me) you could still enjoy this! There were some unsettling graphic bits (both involving gore and sexual content), so I'd pass on this if you want to avoid anything of that nature. But overall, I think this is a book that horror lovers (particularly those who like to deconstruct the genre) will enjoy and I recommend it highly.
*4.5 This book was just such a fun and twisted ride. Going to be thinking about the twists for quite a while and what exactly did happen.
A Head Full of Ghosts would make a very good episode of Black Mirror. Aside from the fact that it features a recognizable element of media and pop culture (reality television) mixed with an element of horror (demonic possession...or psychiatric persecution, however you want to look at it), it also showcases the anti-cathartic ending that makes each episode of Black Mirror so oppressively bleak. Honestly, I was shocked when I realized I had reached the ending. There's no real resolution or tying up of events - it's treated a bit like a mystery that you don't actually realize is a mystery. There's a reveal of a whodunnit, and then it ends as though the reveal itself is supposed to make everything better. Spoiler: it doesn't.It's hard to describe who's point of view this book is from. Technically, it's from the point of view of Meredith, looking back on the period in her life when her older sister was supposedly possessed by a demon and a reality show was erected around her exorcism. But Meredith takes you through different angles of perspective. In some, she's an adult talking to a writer, Rachel, who is planning on writing a book about her family and the show. In others, we go into her dialogue as she describes what happened to Rachel, and suddenly Meredith is 8 years old again, experiencing everything fresh. The third perspective is one of snarky blog posts that Meredith writes under the name Karen Brissette, where she analyzes the show herself from a distance. She treats her own life as a fiction - or, the kind of fiction that reality TV is, which I've heard called “assisted reality.” She regards her own life, her own experiences, through the lens of media analysis, applying story tropes and film techniques to something that actually happened. It creates a fascinating metatextual effect - as though Paul Tremblay is deconstructing his own story within his story, calling out the moments of exploitation, even breaking down a classic horror moment by explaining why it was scary. It's a really intriguing approach, if not a little disorienting.Nonetheless, I kind of dragged myself through this book. The first maybe third of the book features a lot of very spooky and disturbing behavior on the part of Marjorie, Meredith's possibly possessed sister, that both fits in with common exorcism-movie tropes while also taking it a little bit beyond. It's genuinely unsettling but also intriguing from a story perspective. However, at one point, when Meredith is talking to Rachel, she refers to her sister's affliction as a “descent into schizophrenia.” We don't find out until much later that there was never actually an opportunity for Marjorie to be formally diagnosed. But after Meredith says this, there's little illusion about what's happening - this is not a horror story, it's a story about sick girl and her struggling family being taken advantage of bt the religious authorities in their life and opportunistic TV people. There's nothing supernatural at all happening. And once you realize that, there doesn't seem to be much hope for this family. Watching them crumble becomes a debilitating exercise that vaguely resembles entertainment.From a technical standpoint, I think A Head Full of Ghosts is a fascinating attempt at doing something different. But I wish it had more in the way of justice. There's a lot of lip service paid to the patriarchal oppression that contributed to the events in the story (the father's unemployment and desperate attempts to regain control of his life through his faith; the dismissal of Marjorie's intelligence and fear of her strength and abilities that lead people to believe she's possessed; and the combined powers of an old institution -religion - and a new one - media - doing the same thing institutions always do - making women's lives miserable), but in the end nothing is really done about it. Though maybe that's exactly what Marjorie's murder-suicide was supposed to be, her stopping a form of oppression in its tracks by killing her parents and herself. Or maybe it was just a girl with paranoid schizophrenia who falsely believed her father was trying to kill her and her family. Or maybe it really was a demon the whole time. Maybe I'm just old. It's hard for me to watch women - particularly young women - hurting. Stories like this are almost scarier than something like [b:The Handmaid's Tale 38447 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498057733s/38447.jpg 1119185], because as possible as it may seem there's still a few stumbling steps before we get there. A Head Full of Ghosts could be happening right now. In fact, it probably is.
Haunting story of a family in crisis. It leaves me wondering what really happened. And I love the way the story was told, through a blog, interviews, and memories. We know what people saw on the TV show. We see behind the scenes to the taping of the show. And we also see the family drama. We see the people and their flaws. A descent into madness isn't normally, so public nor is it quite so tragic. This one will stick with me.
It's a good thing I promised myself that I wouldn't read another book until the end of the week, because I will need the time not only to study but mainly to get my mind around how great this book is! I believe this is my favourite book I read this year (2016)!
Great audiobook, I probably wouldn't enjoy this half as much if it wasn't for the excellent narration.
I had many problems with the book regarding the portrayal of mental illness, the book itself seemed inconsistent on it admitting that Marjoire is the victim and still portraying her as dangerous. I have to say I love the main characters portrayal as a little girl, the author doesn't pretend kids are too stupid to understand whats going on but she's still completely realistic.
A meta ‘Exorcism' story within a story within a story. Refreshing critique of the ‘possessed' stories and the mass-market media attention that goes with it.
Always on board for a book that references my favourite movie ever, John Carpenter's The Thing (and in such an awesome way! omg).
Also, I'm not sure if it's just my edition or if Tremblay adds notes and book/film recommendations to all his novels (I'm about to find out though) but it's the greatest, nerdiest idea ever and should be made obligatory.
This book is basically the Stranger Things for horror nerds.
Maybe 3.5.
I actually quite enjoyed this. It plays with found footage and possession horror, which is nice. Those are two genres that are so overdone and usually awful (with a few notable exceptions). I'm torn about the blogging chapters, because they're basically a character detailing the themes of the whole book for you, which seems heavyhanded to me. But, honestly, I still enjoyed the academic horror feel of them.
I love Marjorie. I enjoy how she exemplifies the themes Merry lays out in her blog chapters, how she is the focal point for what is basically America's regression into superstition and schadenfreude. I am alternately frustrated by and pleased by the fact that, even though Marjorie is most likely mentally ill, you could almost argue she's possessed, were you so inclined.
So, yeah, even though this isn't the same level as ‘Bird Box,' ‘When We Were Animals,' or ‘The Lesser Dead,' I still enjoyed this immensely.