A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay might be my favorite work of possession fiction. Tremblay tells the story of Merry, Marjorie, and their parents through a series of conversations, interview recollections, and blog posts. Each of these different types of chapter has its own voice and style, resulting in outstanding pacing and variety in this novel. The story never felt stagnant or repetitive, and was both highly entertaining, thought provoking, and heart breaking. On the surface this book seems akin to many other exorcism stories (with a LOT of meta references to other horror books and movies). Is teenaged Marjorie possessed, faking a possession, or is she mentally ill? However when told through the POV of her younger sister this volume takes on the postmodern mantle of the unknowable or even non-existent nature of absolute truth. On this, my second reading of this book, I came away with the sense that above all the various characters were possessed by stories and ideas. I do not know if Marjorie or her father or anyone else was actually possessed by a demon. I feel fairly confident that one or both were probably struggling with mental illness, but ultimately I found Merry, like her namesake, to be a somewhat unreliable narrator underscoring the ultimately mysterious and unknowable nature of what really happened. I can see why some readers might find this less satisfying or even less original than desired. I had not read Shirley Jackson the first time I read this book, and I can see why certain elements of this story may have felt predictable to readers
who had. Yet overall I found the combination of voice and style, meta references to other works, and themes to be a really brilliant read. Acting as both a homage to and critique of the possession and exorcism sun-genre of horror, A Head Full of Ghosts is one of my favorite books and one that is likely to haunt my thoughts long after finishing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️