A Head Full of Ghosts

A fellow New Englander, Tremblay took me by complete surprise with this novel. In the past, I saw horror defined by slashers, gore, and jump scares. This novel helped me understand that modern horror is a bit savvier and more nuanced, with a stronger focus on emotional suffering.

I really connected with the struggling working-class family and sympathized with their decision to let a documentary film crew create a series about their clearly struggling daughter. The film crew intended to market the girl as possessed by a demon, which the family signs off on in order to collect a desperately… show more.

As an avid horror fan, not much creeps me out. This book did.

The story follows Merry, a young girl who is certain her teenage sister, Marjorie is possessed. Soon her religious parents believe Marjorie is possessed as well and invite a film crew to document the strange happenings in their home and an attempted exorcism.

The details of this alleged possession are terrifying, especially told from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl.

But just when you think you understand what happened with their family, the last few pages turn the tables on you and cause you to question what… show more.

I hadn’t read any new fiction in a while when I got this book, and it managed to creep me out so much I had weird dreams. It has a retro horror movie vibe like The Exorcist or Poltergeist but manages to be even more frightening. Its power is that you are always unsure of what is fact and what is fantasy as the main character recounts a family trauma from her childhood and the lines between mental illness and demonic possession are blurred. The examination of family and how it affects people and their relationships is a strong base… show more.

I still recall quite vividly how reading this book made my skin prickle with gooseflesh. Tremblay does a masterful job conveying a tale of possession through a varied narrative approach that overtly wears its horror influences on its sleeves. The exorcism sequence is so damn unnerving, it continues to haunt me when the hour is late and I’m home alone.

One problem inherent to stories involving exorcisms is the task of making the unbelievable believable. How does an author get past the barrier of making a non-religious reader buy into the premise that a Catholic priest is the only person worthy of defeating evil incarnate? Paul Tremblay cracked the exorcism code with his 2015 tale of sisterly love, demonic possession, and reality TV. If the writer can ground the reader in enough realism through character and setting, suddenly those preconceived belief systems begin to melt, at least temporarily. By telling the story from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl watching… show more.

A book that frightened me so much I genuinely had to sleep with the lights on. I love domestic horror and the discomfort of a family setting and Tremblay’s novel digs deep into this. A Head Full of Ghosts centres around a fourteen-year-old girl displaying signs of acute schizophrenia and the methods her family uses to exorcise her demons. At a time when I’d grown weary of so much modern horror this book really got under my skin.

A scary book that makes you flip pages very quickly. The protagonist is eight years old, which is a stroke of genius (it made everything less gimmicky and more real, and thus more terrifying because you're seeing it through the eyes of a child). It takes a bit to pull you in; probably due to the blog entries that at first, you don't know why you're reading. At the end, when you're nearly done, you might find yourself disappointed: I know I was, just for a split second, because it felt ... contrived, not genuine, and left me thinking, rats,… show more.