Review: A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not gonna lie, I'm not entirely sure what the hell just happened.

I mean, I appreciate how much it messed with my head but mostly it's just kind of a really sad story? Not really horrific or scary. Just ... sad.

The story is about the Barrett family, with particular emphasis on the 'possession' experienced by 14yr old Marjorie, from the point of view of her 8yr old sister, Merry. Marjorie is showing signs of schizophrenia, and when doctors don't seem to help their religious father turns to a local priest for help in exorcising the demon possessing his daughter. Naturally capitalism sees the incident turned into a hit TV show, and 15 years later Merry is finally opening up about how it all went down.

The angle was definitely unique. It was fascinating to read about the horrors behind the camera vs in front of the camera. Bit of a cheeky dig at reality TV there for sure, and I really enjoyed it.

It was also really cleverly told from Merry's perspective - normally I hate stories told by kids, but because this is adult Merry reflecting on her childish thoughts and feelings, it just works a lot better. Eight-year-old Merry is so innocent and naive, but we don't have to live it with her. There was something about that that made it much more entertaining for me, and also garnered a lot more sympathy. I just felt so sad when things went awry. Everyone was just doing the best they could.

There are a lot of horror cultural references which many will enjoy - I found even if I didn't entirely get the reference, I still enjoyed it. Be warned, though - many of these references come with spoilers.

I never found it particularly creepy but I was fascinated by how disturbingly fast religion sunk its claws into this family. I feel like there was a lot of substance in the themes but it was neglected in favour of allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

I guess, overall, it just felt emotionally lacking. Like, all the emotion generated is just sadness over how things went for this family. But I don't know that I ever really knew the characters as well as I wanted to.

It was interesting, curious, and a novel concept, and I enjoyed how much it messed with my mind. But there was something missing that kept it from being a true knockout of a novel for me. I still recommend it, though. It's definitely different, and I don't think a summary of it could possibly do it justice.

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