A Head Full of Ghosts
by Paul Tremblay
Blurb:
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.
My Reaction:
Hm. I'm feeling ambivalent about this book.
First things first: I listened to the audiobook version, and while this is the first book of this author's that I've "read"/listened to, I did watch Knock at the Cabin, the film adaptation of The Cabin at the End of the World, then went and skimmed a synopsis of the novel (after reading that the movie went in a different direction from the original story). Based on that experience (both the movie and reading the synopsis), I wasn't feeling confident I'd love A Head Full of Ghosts—but I'd already put it on my list a long time back after seeing it recommended highly, so when the opportunity presented itself, I gave it a try, anyway.
It's not bad, but it's also not a favorite. There are a few good, chilling moments, but in my view it doesn't live up to the hype. Maybe I missed something, but... Eh, I wanted more answers rather than questions and hints and suggestions that, more often than not, seem self-contradictory.
Specifics:
—I've never watched The Exorcist and have no desire to do so. It's one of those "classic" horror movies that holds no allure for me. The whole "exorcism genre" has never appealed to me, and any time a movie includes an exorcism, I wish it would finish quickly so we can get on with the interesting parts of the story. I just don't get the appeal. The idea of actually being possessed (or being around someone who is or believes they are) is, of course, horrifying, but the actual exorcism itself? No, not interested in that. Since so much of the book revolves around that plot point, that's a strike against the book right away.
—I see that I'm not alone in finding the blogger character's writing style frustrating to read. I believe I understand why the author did it this way, but it's still deeply irritating to read, after a while.
—Didn't care for how the narrator voiced male characters... And her way of pronouncing "always", shortening the second half of the word so it sounds like "alwys", makes me shudder, for some reason. Funnily enough, I catch myself saying it that way sometimes, too—but not alwys. (Ha ha.) Oh, and the "yeah?" that the two sisters kept tacking onto the ends of sentences drove me up the wall, too. (Okay, maybe I'm a bit too easy to irritate.)
—Marjorie really annoyed me. "Mom" annoyed me. "Dad"? Also annoying. Young Merry is mostly relatable, though even she is occasionally annoying. The whole cast kind of rubbed me the wrong way, at one point or another. (Let's just get it all out there... Grump, grump, grump!)
—This novel is also being made into a movie, evidently. I'd be interested in seeing it, at some point, to see how they adapt it. It might work better on the screen, though I'm not sure how they'll handle the blog element...
