Why am I passionate about this?
I’ve always been fascinated by people’s motives whether that be in real life or written on the page. That’s what drew me to write in the thriller genre to begin with because at the core, it's about finding out why people do things. But sometimes this genre portrays female characters as either innocent damsels or evil femme fatales, neither of which captures that women are a mix of good and bad like all other people. That’s why I try to write my female protagonists in my novels, short stories, and fictional podcasts, in a way that makes them conflicted humans and causes them to experience both downfalls and triumphs.
V.P.'s book list on thrillers with morally gray female protagonists
Why did V.P. love this book?
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 Merry has told you, how good of a person she actually is, and ask yourself how responsible could a child be in this horrific circumstance.
6 authors picked A Head Full of Ghosts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The lives of the Barretts, a suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to halt Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show.Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls the terrifying events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets…