A Head Full of Ghosts audiobook

paul tremblay interviews me, or "me" here: https://thelittlesleep.wordpress.com/...this book is about a fourteen-year-old girl named marjorie, her eight-year-old sister merry, and the events leading up to marjorie's exorcism. your attention, i have it, yes? this is both a horror novel and a psychological suspense novel, but then it goes the extra step into self-referential metafiction in a way that is natural and not gimmicky-annoying, probably because that part involves a delightful character named karen brissette. on the one hand, this rests firmly in the canon of possession lit, and all the expectations are met: the voices, the vomit, the levitation, the inappropriate sexual acts, but there's a cheekiness to it at all times - a little wink as it slightly adjusts these elements so that they are present, but slightly "off." this isn't played for horror, more for unease and a sort of evaluation of the possession genre itself. the book is mostly told through the eyes of merry - now twenty-three years old - meeting with a woman who is writing a book about marjorie and the family's experiences. it cuts between merry-now and merry's immersive recollections of the events that destroyed her family. when marjorie began acting erratically, her parents sent her to a psychiatrist and she was put on medication. when her condition worsened, and events more sinister and inexplicable occurred, her unemployed father turned to the church in desperation. under the direction of the inscrutable father wanderly, an exorcism was prescribed and somehow the whole thing became a media event and was filmed for television as a reality show. since we are relying on the memory of an eight-year-old who was kept out of the planning stages, the how of this is unclear but it doesn't come across as implausible or silly, the way it does in what i just wrote. the family was struggling financially, and this helped them out of a tight spot. desperate people do desperate things, things they might later regret. so their house is overrun by camera crews, marjorie continues to creep through the hallways, and merry tries not to get lost in all of it, whatever "it" is.essentially, it boils down to what all exorcism scenarios are beneath their shrieking theatrics: what is "really" happening - is it madness? is it actually demonic possession? is it the cry for help of an abused child? this is a novel concerned more with perception/perspective than with truth. there are no easy answers here, and you can draw your own conclusions: the supernatural explanation is just as plausible as the psychological, but no matter which way you lean at the end, there are prickly stickers that will make you doubt your choice. but tremblay adds another layer on top of this familiar storyline with the reality show element, and in life's delicious synchronicity my reading of the book coincided with my starting to watch black mirror, so all the themes of suffering-as-entertainment and the complicity of the viewer in demanding and therefore perpetuating another person's humiliation is fresh in my mind. two things right off the bat - he doesn't fall into the ready trap of either satire or preachiness. this is not wry chuckling at reality teevee and the ethical ramifications are put forth in very natural ways by characters who would indeed question these things, so it doesn't feel like reader-directed "shame on you" (which makes it better than black mirror, but i've only seen two episodes) and now let's get to the best part of the book: MEEEEEE!!!the karen brissette character writes a horror blog which is running a 15-year-anniversary feature on the show. it's not ME-me, but it's clearly written by someone who has read a review or two of mine. while i would never use the word "funky" or ever say anything in r'lyehian, there is a very familiar enthusiasm and a chatty, distracted voice that both delighted me and made me squirm a little when i was reading it in my head, in my voice. i'm a little alarmed that i am so easy to parody/spoof. it actually reads like a mash-up of me and pms, where the thinky parts sound like her and the puppy-energy parts sound like me. and i so cringed when "karen" dropped that das unheimliche thing because YES, that is something i have done WHEN APPROPRIATE but i did feel a miniature shame for it to be pointed out. and except for the ugly capital letters sprinkled throughout her blog posts, there's something uncanny (DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

This book blew me away. I might have to come back and alter my review because I'm not entirely sure how to process this book.All I will say about the plot is it revolves around the Barrett family and we are trying to solve the puzzle of 14 year old Marjorie's illness. Is she mentally ill? Is she possessed by a demon? Anything more would spoil it all and I refuse to do such a thing!This is definitely a book that will stay with me. While it's not overly gory or "scary" in the traditional sense, it IS severely creepy and disturbing with a slow building sense of urgency. I found myself flipping pages more quickly as the ending drew near. I also enjoyed the blogging entries which had a very familiar air about them. :) I really enjoyed Karen's two cents and felt like I was reading thoughts from a personal friend.I truly believe this book made its mark on me by how I still feel connected to this tragic family; they were haunting and sad. Well done Mr. Tremblay for concocting such a terrifying and tragic story that kept me turning the pages. I'm looking forward to checking out his other book.

5 thrilling, scary stars!It’s official Robert Downey Jr and his beautiful wife (Team Downey) are bringing out the movie adaption. Once upon a time in Hollywood’s Margaret Qualley ( Andie MacDowell’s daughter) got the leading part as Scott Cooper accepted to direct the movie! Get ready to scare the hell of yourselves! So we’re gonna be able to watch this terrifying story and sh*t our pants! What an amazing way to spend your weekend night! ( already stocked my boozes and munchies! )This book should be categorized as a smartly written masterpiece! I loved the pop culture references. Since I was ten I have been reading horror books and watching thriller movies so I loved the references and comments that writer used. ( I think I may have read all those books and watched all those movies he mentioned) I loved his technique to use all these selected thriller elements and his vision to combine them and put all these elements at the right places just like finishing a masterpiece puzzle! Can’t wait to read more books of this writer.

I'll keep this short and sweet: one of the best horror novels (maybe the best) I've ever read.

The Exorcist revisited, a head full of horror novels, a reality TV show, a blog, a narrator and an author, Rachel, who listens to this incredible story. Well, I liked all the references to The Exorcist and wondered if the story here around Majorie and Merry was staged by Majorie from beginning to end. Who is the real obsessed here? Does religion bring salvation or does it escalate the situation to the worse? Does joblessness lead into demonic obsession? A very interesting novel written in a modern but sometimes a bit confusing way. To many layers within that story, a bit too constructed. I like all the references to The Exorcist (fantastic novel and film). This book can be regarded as kind of Exorcist 4.0. The reference to The Thing by John Carpenter was also great. The ending was very disturbing and cutting. Didn't think the story would take such a twist. If you like dark stories like The Exorcist you definitely should read this modernized version. But to be honest, I prefer the original Blatty novel. Nevertheless highly recommended!

I wasn't necessarily scared while reading this, but I was definitely entertained.I loved that the story didn't take itself too seriously (it actually made fun of itself quite often lol)

3.5 starsI enjoyed the way this was written, I liked the back and forth between the two timeliness, and I enjoyed the story about the sisters and their relationship. Some parts of it were genuinely creepy — especially with the audio and listening to the girls voice change when she’s possessed. But overall I don’t really enjoy reading about exorcisms and I don’t think it’s my kind of horror 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is a kind of weird experience. Granted it’s not the first time that Karen has popped up in a book as a character (I can think of two others), but this is the first time that she appears quite a bit (at least by name, as the character isn’t actually supposed to be her). We’ll get back to this later on the review though.The book is about a family that was once featured on a reality tv show called Possession, which was as the name suggests about demonic possession. The show featured a New England family. Mom, dad, two daughters. And the eldest, a fourteen year-old, was having some kind of mental breakdown and may or may not have been possessed by demons. The reality tv show aired for six episodes and featured the decision of the Catholic Church to perform an exorcism on her. The story is told from the perspective of the younger daughter about fifteen (I think, that would be about right) years after the events that happened. She’s telling her story to a writer whose writing a book about the television show, the family and the aftermath of the TV show. Exactly what the book is though isn’t clear. There are scenes with the twenty-something year old Merry (youngest daughter) talking to the author and giving an adult perspective about what had happened; but most of the book is told from the point of view of Merry as a child. These parts stay in character mostly, with only a few moments where she will foreshadow about things that she could only know from a later vantage point. The third thread of the story is a series of blog posts written by Karen Brissette (aka The Last Girl Online (which is a name I’ve been thinking of calling her from now on, never again using her real name)) for a horror blog. In it she is deconstructing the episodes of the show and using a lot of words that the real Karen would get angry at me if I ever used in a review or conversation. It’s quite funny to me to see her written that way. The book is excellent. I went into it thinking that it would be amusing but more of interest because of the character of Karen; but I ended up loving the book. The idea of a novel about a demonic possession isn’t really all that interesting to me. I don’t know if I’m in the minority but I never found The Exorcist that scary or interesting. Either the book or the movie. Maybe in the words of The Usual Suspects, it’s because the devil has played his greatest trick on me by making me believe he doesn’t exist; but the idea of people being possessed by demons I just don’t believe in enough to find it that scary—I guess i just believe that people have enough reasons and causes to go psychotic and do fucked up shit that I just never think of that they are becoming the vessel of a literal incarnate of pure evil. As a horror novel it’s not all that scary, but the subject matter definitely puts it into that camp—but more in the meta-horror type arena. There is a massive awareness of the genre that it’s writing into, especially in the blog posts by the Last Girl Online that everything is situated within the context of films like The Exorcist, all those possession films that came out a few years ago, The Shining, Evil Deads, etc. Using those to frame the story there are definite questions that keep coming up about the reality of what we are being told (in the fictional universe, it never tries to cross the Brechtian Fourth Wall and make us question if this is actually true (say a la the attempts made by the original Blair Witch Project that tried to play off of the idea that this might actually be all true (did anyone believe that? (I don’t know (yes I’m going nuts with the parentheses here for a reason), but I do know that after seeing the movie in the theaters I personally was a little freaked out, and I heard from a friend that he was more than a little freaked out driving through the half-mile in the woods from the road to his house after going to see it, and he is someone who regularly watched horror movies (what does this say? I don’t know but there was something weirdly powerful about the low-budget movie when it first came out)))). The effect of this style creates an interesting feel to the story, but one which never feels like it’s being overly forced and just meta for the sake of being self-referential and overly clever for the sake of being cute. This last little bit really is filled with some spoilers, so I’d skip over this, and just maybe take my word that this book is a lot of fun and you should give it a try. But if you've read the book than maybe you’ll be interested in continuing.(view spoiler)[It’s really the last section of the book that made this book a huge winner for me. Up until then, it was interesting, but there was a big question that I didn’t even realize I’d had about the book. Why was this story being told? I just accepted that it was a re-telling of a short-lived reality TV show, but why exactly would a writer more than a decade later care to write a story about something that one can imagine would have been a curiosity but nothing more. It’s not until near the end of the book that the big reveal comes (that is hinted at earlier in a story, but never explicitly expressed) that Merry’s whole family had been poisoned soon after the events of the show and that she was the sole survivor. Before that there was the feeling that maybe Marjorie dies during the exorcism, which begs the question if she was actually possessed or not. The reveal and the the story behind what happens comes quickly and by itself is kind of a twisted turn on a book. All through the book I felt like Marjorie is faking, there is no way that she was actually possessed, but there were nods and winks that the story that Marjorie was saying about faking it were not actually true. But then the ending and the unanswered questions about why Marjorie would get Merry to poison the family—subverting the accepted story that it was the father who was doing this. It seems to open up a lot of questions at the last moment. And yes there are questions, but then there comes more with an ambiguity even coming over the big reveal that Merry makes about what happens after she had unintentionally poisoned her family at Marjorie’s prodding. It’s a weirdly subtle/unsubtle moment in the coffee shop as she is finishing up telling her story to the writer that the whole story is called into question in another way completely. But this time from a fact given in the previous blog post you have to start wondering if Merry (aka Karen Brissette) isn’t in fact possessed by evil. As their conversation comes to a close and the temperature begins to drop drastically in the coffee shop it seems as if the comment that she had made as Karen in her blog is telling about the presence of evil—mixed with this is the question of the way that Merry was dressed to go to the final meeting with the writer, with her ‘gaudy red coat’ that called back the outfit the 8 year old Merry wore when she was playing reporter—a weird detail that I’m not actually sure what to make of, but put in to the strangeness of this last meeting where the already ambiguous story line basically has a hammer taken to it and destroyed, it feels like it should be saying something. Normally I’m not a huge fan of more unanswered questions jammed into the last pages of a book, but the way that the big reveals are followed up by even more questions seems to work here, maybe because these questions aren’t all that explicit. They could be chalked up to the trauma Merry experienced as a kid—of they could be calling into question a whole lot of scenes in the book (for example (this has just come to me) Marjorie knew that Merry was possessed the whole time and the whole thing was staged to have her in the room during the exorcism in order to save her… and that the story about Dad being the one who was sick and Marjorie doing all this to get him help was really Merry being the one that was sick (since we are only getting Merry’s view of the story and immediately after she makes this reveal Rachel pretty much says, but that’s not what happened and Marjorie changes the part of where she was found (and that Merry starts the big reveal by asking Rachel what she knows, so she is possibly giving some new info but only in the context of what is already known instead of letting herself give away too much)).Or Merry just kills her family because they aren’t paying enough attention to her, they don’t buy the Christmas Tree and she didn’t really know what she was doing because she was 8 years old.I don’t know if the ending was meant to be so open or if I’m just reading into it, but even if it wasn’t intentional I definitely enjoyed it and it probably earned the book it’s final star from me. (hide spoiler)]

I've never been big on possession/exorcism stories. The whole notion strikes me as...silly, somehow. As an avid horror fiction fan, I can buy into all manner of nasty creatures and supernatural phenomena while reading, but the concept of Satan or some other demon possessing a young girl, with the battle for her soul being waged by some priest and his prayers just doesn't do it for me. So it took me a while to get to this one, despite the rave reviews. Some horror buffs here on Goodreads are of the opinion that A Head Full of Ghosts is overrated. I am not one of those people. Much like Tremblay's Disappearance at Devil's Rock, the thing that elevates this novel above most horror for me is the excellent characterization, especially of the quirky and lovable 8 year-old Merry. Her narration as she tries to remember her family's ordeal during her older sister Marjorie's illness/possession, was so engaging that I read the entire novel in just a few sittings. She felt real to me, and I cared about what happened to her. The concept of a reality show crew being with the family at all times created a layer of unreality to it all, and made everything more ambiguous. Was Marjorie playing it all up for the cameras in order to "help" the show, and thus her family? Perhaps she's dealing with schizophrenia. Or was she actually possessed? Tremblay does an outstanding job of always leaving the reader on unsteady ground.It's also creepy as hell at times, with a number of moments that sent serious chills down my spine. But Merry was what kept me reading. She was who I cared about. I cared about Marjorie as well, but more so for Merry's sake, as she considers Marjorie her hero and I didn't want to see her permanently scarred by the horrifying experience. Some people I see didn't care for the "blogger" sections, where a reviewer blogs about the reality show (The Possession) made about the incident, feeling it broke up the flow of the story. For me, reading the book in 90-100-page chunks, I needed a breather from the main story at times, and these sections worked well in allowing me to calm the hell down.Overall, this is up there with the very best horror novels I've read. And as a bonus, horror geeks will have fun spotting all the references to various authors and books sprinkled throughout. Sometimes this sort of thing can suck me out of a story, but I was much too enveloped to be affected.5 Stars

Actually I'm not sure if I loved this book or hated it. It was one of those books that you read and you're kind of miserable the whole time, but it also kind of blows your mind and gets you thinking. Usually, I'm against thinking too hard. I'm lazy. But, in this case, I thought some really good points on feminism, the patriarchy, religious zealotry, and the media made it worth it to hurt my brain a little bit.okay, I admit this is every day...So, the premise of this book is about a young woman who is recounting her childhood with a mentally ill sister. The sister seems to be schizophrenic, but we can never really be sure. Her father is convinced that she is possessed by a demon and agrees to allow a reality television show film their family and an exorcism that is performed on the girl. It is, to put it in a succinct way, a clusterfuck.How shocking, huh? An exorcism that is a reality show spectacle turns out poorly for all involved? Who would have guessed! Those concerned and benevolent television producers were only interested in helping this poor 14-yr old girl get well. How could they have known that turning her sickness into a circus might be harmful?And much like reality television, it will all turn to rotting unrecognizable goo..In between the girl's recounting of her story, we also see blog posts about the reality show itself where the author is picking the show apart, giving us the idea that maybe the whole thing was staged. And, it does give the reader smidgens of doubt. You aren't sure what you believe, and you aren't sure your narrator is even very reliable when she is telling what actually happened.maybe...Then, we find out who is writing the blog. Hummm.... is she giving us hints?Then, we get a bomb dropped.And, then we are decimated...What the hell, book?Things just don't wrap up neatly in this story. We have to make our own judgments about Marjorie and her "possession"/mental illness, but I like what our blogger had to say about it: If she was possessed by anything other than faulty brain chemistry and/or DNA, I like to imagine her as being possessed by the vast, awesome and awful monster that is popular culture.

Este es probablemente uno de los libros que más me han gustado y con los que no voy a ser objetivo o imparcial.Este historia nos habla del lento descenso a la tragedia de una familia gracias a "la posesión demoníaca" de una de sus hijas: Marjorie. La historia nos muestra sobre todo la relación entre las hermanas y es por medio de Merry (la hermana menor) que empezamos a entender poco a poco todo lo que ocurrió en su infancia quince años atrás y qué fue lo que pasó con todos los integrantes de la familia luego de tomar la terrible decisión de utilizar la situación de "la chica poseída" para hacer un programa de terror que verán muchas personas activamente durante su emisión.Además de tomar como anexo a la historia el blog de Karen, una chica amante a todo lo relacionado al horror que le da su buena dosis de crítica social a todo lo planteado. Aunque siento que esta parte a veces sobra un poco y hace que la historia pierda ritmo narrativo se disfruta muchísimo por dos puntos: el primero con las grandes dosis de referencia a exponentes del género del terror y todo el tema de la cultura popular.Una cabeza llena de fantasmas no es un libro de terror propiamente dicho, para mí es un libro que habla sobre el terror y que tiene todos los componentes dignos del género para explotarlos y que si bien lo hace, no es para impresionante a ti como lector sino para llevarte por una larga espiral de reflexiones sobre el miedo, la ignorancia, el fanatismo religioso y la fe exacerbada así como la nula empatía y lo muchísimo que puede hacer daño televisar casos de la vida real para el puro entretenimiento y disfrute de los televidentes. Advierto que esta historia es triste y muy incómoda, desde el comienzo se intuye qué es lo verdaderamente está pasando con la chica afectada y eso lo hace aún más doloroso porque esperas que el desenlace de todo el conflicto sea impactante y devastador. Es una historia trágica y que a mí me entristeció profundamente.No quiero hablar más sobre el libro porque siento que precisamente es de esos en los que es mejor descubrir porqué se merece una oportunidad. Para mí no hay nada mejor que aquellos libros con los que tienes una idea preconcebida y luego te estrellas con algo totalmente diferente a lo que te esperabas pero no por ello malo o de peor calidad. Si vienes a esta historia con ganas de entretenerte o asustarte permíteme decirte que es más que eso y puede que salgas con el corazón un poco apretujado por lo trágico y devastador de su final.La negligencia parental, la salud mental, los tormentos personales sobre el pasado y los traumas emocionales son un factor importante de una historia que habla de manipulaciones, enfermedades y verdades que se niegan a ver durante mucho tiempo por el dolor que lastra enfrentarlas. A mí me dejó sinceramente destrozado, incómodo y muy sorprendido con el "giro" del final que parece una serie de plot twist cuando en realidad no es así y eso choca aún más.

Antes pensaba que Hex había sido mi mejor lectura de terror del año. Lo retiro. "Una cabeza llena de fantasmas" vino a cambiarlo todo. Me esperaba algo de toooodo lo que ocurre durante esta grandiosa novela, pero definitivamente me sorprendió muchísimo. Sin entrar en detalle, solo voy a decir dos cosas: el final me dejó totalmente devastada, y por otro lado, pronto le haré una reseña completa en mi canal.

What an awesome surprise! Mr. Paul Tremblay knows his horror motifs, and he (and I) love how they're layered and layered some more, starting from truly delightful character sets with the slowly creeping horror, the slide into a normal family's confusion and pain, and then...Possession.What? A straight possession tale and not one about a family taking care of a mentally ill daughter? One who suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia?Oh yes, let's take this tale into a heavy-hitting commentary on religion that's fully aware of the past treatments and current standings and let's make sure that the audience is treated like the knowledgable horror fans that we are. Because we are.And to drive the point home really well, we've got Merry playing karen in a cameo! ;)Only, the character is discussing all these narrative points and previous entries in the horror genre and establishing this book's place in the greater conversation. How delightful! Who better to be an expert in a horror genre, blogging under an assumed name and not as herself, than the little 8 year old girl who suffered through the breakdown of her sister into maddness/poessession, and the religious/media circus that followed the reality tv spectacle. Real life following art following real life following art? Yes, please!But what really sets this book up well is not just the obvious devolution and the questions and the lies and the religious nuttery; it's the twist that explained so naturally, so self-consciously, so delightfully honest and with great energy, that I was pretty well floored by the end of the read.And this is how a good book becomes a great book. :) Well, a great horror, anyway. :) Smart and delicious and self-conscious and surprising. :) What more could we ask for? Tragedy? Oh yes, there's that, too. :)

!!! 2015 Winner of Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel!!!I read this last summer so the details are a bit sketchy now to pull off an in-depth review, but I hate leaving review spaces blank, and this is me trying to push some of my favorites back in front of your face again in case you missed them. A Head Full of Ghosts just snagged the 2015 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel which should help give it a much-deserved boost in exposure. I loved this one, not only because parts of it genuinely creeped me the hell out and raised the little hairs on the back of my neck, but the uncertainty of whether I was dealing with an unreliable narrator or not kept me on edge, and off kilter through the entirety of the novel. In its most simplistic terms, this is an "exorcism" book -- teenager Marjorie is Regan MacNeil (minus the pea soup vomiting and ...ahem...crucifix play). She is out of control -- her behavior becoming increasingly odd, violent and disturbing to her family -- especially her younger sister Merry (our intrepid narrator looking back on events from an adult p.o.v.)Can I just say right here right now, creepy kids creep me the hell out? Of course they do.As this desperate family plunges into the darkness of either a spiritually possessed child, or one who is mentally ill, reality show producers come a-calling, hoping to sensationalize and to capitalize for a quick buck on the family's suffering. Which brings us to the "meta" aspects of this novel which give it an extra layer of fun. Not only do we get the transcripts of the reality documentary, we also get the blog entries of an intrepid blogger who has a keen interest (obsession) in delving into the case. (And in case you haven't heard, our intrepid blogger is based upon Goodreads' very own karen!). There's nothing too graphic here for anyone worried about the "exorcism" angle -- it's very much in the vein of psychological horror because as readers we can never be sure if what's really happening is supernatural in origin, or a product of mental disturbance combined with the shameless exploitation of modern reality tv (and what a desperate family may be driven to do under the right financial pressures). I loved the uncertainty. I loved all the "meta" stuff and breaking through the fourth wall. But most of all, I loved that Paul Tremblay can write a scene that has me trembling, and looking over my shoulder, and then sleeping with the lights on!