• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • Home
  • Books Read
    • Books Read
    • Books by Author
  • Cooking
  • Quilting
You are here: Home / Books Read / A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts

September 27, 2016 Filed Under: Books Read

A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Published by HarperAudio on June 2nd 2015
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends domestic drama, psychological suspense, and a touch of modern horror, reminiscent of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In, and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
The lives of the Barretts, a normal 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 stop 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. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. With John, Marjorie’s father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.
Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface—and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

I am at a loss how to describe my feelings about this book. To me, the book did not hold up as a horror story, maybe a horrible story?
At age 14, I think that Marjorie was too young to show signs of acute schizophrenia. Demonic possession was a stronger possibility as Marjorie’s family was suffering from both financial and emotional problems which could have opened her to that. Marjorie’s father John has returned to the church to deal with his self-esteem problems, pitting him against his wife.
It only seems natural that this totally dysfunctional family would be recruited to star in a reality TV show about their mentally ill daughter called “The Possession”. Along comes Merry, Marjorie’s younger sister who then comes to center stage, the story then begins to revolve around this eight year old. Sadly the story never builds to the slap in the face ending.

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night
Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations,
Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise
Long Shadows
I Have Some Questions for You
The Maid

Primary Sidebar

June 2025
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Jan    
Deer Park
Current weather
-º
Sunrise-
Sunset-
Humidity-
Wind direction-
Pressure-
Cloudiness-
Deer Park weather

2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) has read 12 books toward her goal of 35 books.
hide
12 of 35 (34%)
view books

Pocket

  • Speaker Johnson Works to Unite Fractious Republicans Behind Him

  • Brandon Sanderson Is Your God

  • How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?

Other Books Read

Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

Long Shadows

Footer

Currently Reading

Publishing Soon

The Missing Half The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers
The Quiet Librarian The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens
Goodreads

Copyright © 2025 · WordPress · Log in