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Book Review: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay


A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

William Morrow, 2015

ISBN-13: 978-0062363237

Available: Hardcover and Kindle

Once in a while, a book comes along that does more than stand out from the pack. It wields a power so strong, sings its story with such dissonant melody, and builds characters that you both love and dislike. These books keep you rooting for a happy ending on every page even though all signs point to a black place that seems unavoidable. A Head Full of Ghosts is a novel that deserves praise from every reviewer.

The plot centers on a New England family being slowly torn apart by a mysterious illness affecting their teenage daughter. A television crew moves in to film a reality show about her descent and to record the family falling apart, naming it “The Possession.” A priest is invited in to help despite a decided conflict of faith between family members. Although there have been plenty of stories of possession, this one stands alone.The subtlety of the storytelling and the characterization of the family themselves, the Barretts, drives A Head Full of Ghosts on a slow burn that will have readers scrambling to figure out the mystery of what lives between the pages.

Is fourteen-year-old Marjorie truly possessed? Mentally ill? Or just seeking attention in a family on its last thread of sanity?

Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry, narrates the tale. She watches her sibling descend and transform into someone else—someone she once knew. Merry spins her tale, from the first signs of the “possession,” to the invasion of the television crew, to the religious fervor that festers both inside the house and out in the society where the Barretts must still survive. Her innocent voice fuels the story as readers are allowed to view Merry’s family through her young eyes and ears, as yet unaware of the evils of the mind and soul. The relationship between her and Marjorie is touching and frightening and written superbly by Tremblay. Providing some counterpoint is a blogger who interjects her views on the history of the family through an analysis of the television show. Her connection is slowly revealed and seamlessly strengthens the novel in a manner which elevates the initial intrusion on the narrative into something that becomes essential.

Paul Tremblay has created something special here. Call it a psychological thriller or a mystery, a horror-filled supernatural tale, a dark family drama, or something else. But don’t dismiss it as just another possible “demon-within” story. It is one of the few novels that is sure to leave you chilled and unsettled. Hopefully, by this time next year, all of the critics will have been proven right, the novel will rack up accolades from every dark corner, and readers will cherish A Head Full of Ghosts as a modern classic. Highly recommended for adults.

 

Contains intense psychological horror

Reviewed by David Simms

 

 

Posted on July 15, 2015 by , Reply

AAAAAAAHHHH! Horror is Dead!

At least, that’s what The Guardian says. Apparently the cool literary types haven’t reached out to touch the horror genre in a way that matters, which, according to this author, apparently means it needs to be drenched in literary theory and contemporary economic and political issues:

I’m convinced horror can raise its game. Our postmodern, capitalism-in-crisis, media-saturated world is ripe to describe it anew. Our very language seems to demand it. A mortgage, literally, is a death grip. Negative equity means being haunted by your own house. Corporations have legal personhood: they can be held responsible for criminal actions and claim “human” rights, but ironically they have no body. PR and political spin are referred to as “dark arts”.

.

To this, I can only say “Huh?” Look, if you really want to get down to the basics, great horror fiction crawls into your mind and moves in, or produces a physical, visceral response. It can be literary, but if it doesn’t do either of those things, it’s not horror. And you can call it whatever you want, but if a book does those things, you are reading a horror novel. Fear may nest in the great issues of our time, but horror is something experienced as intensely personal.

Marketing has more to do with what people are calling that book than what it actually is. I wrote about this a while back— “literary” books are seldom marketed as horror. Osama by Lavie Tidhar won the World Fantasy Award, but it gave me nightmares, and rightfully so. Chris Bohjalian doesn’t call it a horror novel, but The Night Strangers(reviewed here)still makes me uneasy. And Kelly Link, mentioned in the Guardian’s article as a refreshing literary voice in fantasy fiction, slips between genres, identifying with horror as well as sf and fantasy(read our interview of her here). And books published as horror, such as The Reapers are the Angels, by Alden Bell, can certainly be literary.

So, nope, horror isn’t dead. Can it be pulpy and commercial? Sure thing. Can it be predictable and badly written? Absolutely. Can it be original, unsettling, and downright terrifying? It better be.

Horror doesn’t die, folks. Pitch in Rise of the Guardians(which you should really see) makes that point effectively. You can banish the nightmares, but the bogeyman always rises again.

(Thanks to Rose Fox at Genreville for the link, and her spirited response).

Posted on November 27, 2012 by , Reply

Dear Literature…

Not that long ago, my former creative writing professor, Clint McCown, left a comment regarding genre fiction (and formula fiction) to a blog entry I wrote some time ago, on the “H-Word”. I’ve been wanting to respond, and now I have discovered that Daniel Abraham has written an excellent(and witty) letter from Genre to Literature here that says, much better than I can, what I have been wanting to say.

Thank you, Mr. Abraham!

 

Posted on December 15, 2011 by , Reply
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