A Head Full of Ghosts – Book Review by Asra Arshad

Roll No. Mi15BBA009

BBA (IRM) 7th semester
About the Author
A Head Full of Ghosts is a horror novel by American writer Paul
Tremblay. Born on June 30, 1971. Paul Tremblay has won the Bram
Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book Awards and is the
author of Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and the crime novels The
Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. He is currently a member of
the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays
and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times,
Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies.
He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston
with his wife and two children.
Published: June 2, 2015
Set in: Beverly Massachusetts
Crux
The novel involves an American family under strain when their
fourteen-year-old daughter, Marjorie Barrett, exhibits signs of mental
illness. The story is told from the point of view of Marjorie's eight-year-
old sister, Merry. Themes include elements of Catholic
exorcism and reality television exploitation.

My Critic:
The book is by far one of the scariest and frightening books which I
have read recently. It has every element of every possession tale that I
have read or seen, from Peter Blatty's ‘’The Exorcist’’ to ‘’Sara Gran's
Come Closer’’.
Paul Tremblay layered his story in such a way that with every peel the
story gets more intense involving and downright unnerving.
The author’s way of writing impressed me a lot as he shaped a lumpy
jumble of thoughts into something clear, accessible and like real he
created a scene that for a point of time I got scared and thought that
supernatural forces exist even in my house. So it is, of course a page
turning type of novel.

The supernatural elements can come or go: regardless of their

presence, the book runs right to the end with an utterly horrifying
conclusion that absolutely blew me away.

What ultimately makes A Head Full of Ghosts such a great read is that
it’s a gripping novel, one that builds and builds, increasing the tension
and dread as the pages turn. It’s a book that’s certainly going to keep
me up for a couple more nights yet.

The message which the author has delivered is that superstitions still
prevail even in 21st century and people believe in stereotypes. Like
Marjorie’s catholic father believing that a demon possessing his
daughter all the while her mother deals with the situation by dragging
her to psychiatrists.

Their priest, Father Wanderly, had connections to the television series,

and going on the show offered a way for the Barretts to avoid
defaulting on their mortgage. The TV crew moved into the family home,
and yet, instead of capturing the "truth," an even more elaborate
fiction began to play out, with deadly consequences. As the adult
Merry's memories clash with the televised version of events leading up
to the climactic final episode of The Possession—it's not spoiling too
much to say that everything that could go wrong does.

Conclusion
To me the story is about the fact about how we jump to conclusions. It
is about how given a few possibilities we always choose the reasoning
with which we are most comfortable with. More often than not, we
reach conclusions which are most convenient to us. Like the father in
the book who believed that his daughter was possessed because if not
then how could she show and do those things. His mind was not
accepting of any other possibility like her daughter being a deviant or
cunning even if for the betterment of the family’s financial situation.
The book taught me that we should not stereotype things just to place
a tag over otherwise incomprehensible situations.
The unknown has always fascinated, excited and sacred us. And we
always deal with such as per our convenience just like the mother who
thought that her daughter was simply having a psychological issue. The
book can be seen from various angles and I would invite each and
everyone to read it.