The story has many distinct parts of a horror possession story. “On the morning of the exorcism, I stayed home from school.” A Head Full of Ghosts isn’t your typical ghost story as it is a story of horror but also one of psychological trauma. The story covers the small amount of time before Marjorie’s exorcism. And Marjorie, a 14ish-year-old young woman who may or may not have a head full of ghosts. The younger sister Merry, both a part of the craziness and separate from it due to her age and naivete. The dad, on the brink of religious zealotry. My ThoughtsĪ Head Full of Ghosts by horror master Paul Tremblay is an experience which I would sum up as, “What the hell happened?”Ī Head Full of Ghosts is about the familial strife of the Barret family. 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. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.įifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. 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.

He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. To her parents’ despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie’s descent into madness. 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. Maybe we don’t think them, we pluck them out from another dimension or another mind.”― paul tremblay, a head full of ghosts About Ideas that are as old as humanity, maybe older, right? Maybe those ideas were out there just floating around before us, just waiting to be thought up. Book Reviews What is real and what is not?

A head full of ghosts by paul tremblay