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A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel
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Published:
HarperCollins 2015
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Description

WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

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.

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Street Date:
06/02/2015
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780062363251
ASIN:
B00MTSKHKO
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Paul Tremblay. (2015). A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Paul Tremblay. 2015. A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Paul Tremblay, A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2015.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Paul Tremblay. A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2015.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Apr 07, 2017 17:33:47
Date Updated:
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        Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the nationally bestselling author of The Beast You Are, The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things and Other Stories, Disappearance at Devil's Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His novel The Cabin at the End of the World was adapted into the Universal Pictures film Knock at the Cabin. He lives outside Boston with his family.

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A Head Full of Ghosts
fullDescription

WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

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.

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: New York Times Book Review
      • content:

        "Paul Tremblay's terrific A Head Full of Ghosts generates a haze of an altogether more serious kind: the pleasurable fog of calculated, perfectly balanced ambiguity." — New York Times Book Review

        "Tremblay paints a believable portrait of a family in extremis emotionally as it attempts to cope with the unthinkable, but at the same time he slyly suggests that in a culture where the wall between reality and acting has eroded, even the make believe might seem credible. Whether psychological or supernatural, this is a work of deviously subtle horror." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

        "[A] literary horror novel . . . Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts [is] one of the most frightening books I've read this, or any, year. . . . Despite the skill with which Tremblay wields his demons, real or otherwise, whether or not Marjorie is actually possessed ends up being the point . . . and Tremblay is elegantly, carefully ambiguous about the situation." — The Guardian

        "Progressively gripping and suspenseful—(Tremblay's) ultimate, bloodcurdling revelation is as sickeningly satisfying as it is masterful." — NPR Books

        "A mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising disturbing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil." — Buzzfeed

        "A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I'm pretty hard to scare." — Stephen King

        "Tremblay expertly ratchets up the suspense until the tension is almost at its breaking point." — Kirkus Reviews

        "[B]rilliantly creepy." — Library Journal

        "The novel is stylishly written and well-conceived." — Booklist

        "Gripping and truly scary, this book feels of the moment in a way few thrillers do." — B&N Reads

        "[A] scary story, indeed." — BookPage

        "[A] creepy, interesting read, great for horror fans." — SFRevu

        "Crackling with dark energy and postmodern wit...[this] superb novel evokes the very best in the tradition—from Shirley Jackson to Mark Z. Danielewski and Marisha Pessl—while also feeling fresh and utterly new. Deeply funny and intensely terrifying, it's a sensory rollercoaster and not to be missed." — Megan Abbott, author of The Fever and Dare Me

        "Loved it. Highly recommended for anyone who loves engrossing literary horror-undertones of The House of Leaves (but far more accessible) and The Exorcist, and redolent of Shirley Jackson." — Ellen Datlow

        "Paul Tremblay plays fast and loose with the conventions of supernatural and psychological storytellling in this chilling ghost story for the 21st century. [It] is the literary lovechild of Shirley Jackson and William Peter Blatty, a novel that's as disturbing as the worst nightmare you ever had as a kid, and as impossible to forget." — Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss and Available Dark

        "Dark, brilliant, and impossible to predict, [this] is more than a perfect horror story. It's a smart and savage look at American culture in all its madness, and the price girls are forced to pay by a society obsessed with spectacle and sin." — Cara Hoffman, author of So Much Pretty and Be Safe I Love You

        "A genuinely scary, post-modern homage to classic horror that invokes Stanley Kubrik and Shirley Jackson in equal measure, but also manages to innovate on nearly every page....

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from April 20, 2015
        Is the protagonist of this book a demon-possessed victim or a clever, manipulative teen? This savvy tale of horror tantalizingly keeps the reader waiting for an answer. When 14-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins behaving as though she’s demonically possessed, her Massachusetts family starts a reality-based television show, The Possession, to earn the money they desperately need to keep their household together. But is Marjorie really channeling a creature of supernatural evil, or is she just good at Internet research, which keeps her one step ahead of her gullible parents and doctors? Marjorie’s younger sister, Meredith, who is recounting these events 15 years after her family’s ordeal, even wonders whether it’s possible for Marjorie “to be both possessed by a demon and faking it too.” Tremblay paints a believable portrait of a family in extremis emotionally as it attempts to cope with the unthinkable, but at the same time he slyly suggests that in a culture where the wall between reality and acting has eroded, even the make believe might seem credible. Whether psychological or supernatural, this is a work of deviously subtle horror. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        June 15, 2015

        The Barretts are an ordinary family living in a Boston suburb until older daughter Marjorie suddenly displays symptoms of acute schizophrenia. Her increasingly erratic behavior affects her whole family. Her mother drinks and tries to get Marjorie professional help, her father turns to the Catholic Church for aid, and younger sister Merry just wants her sibling to go back to being normal. Is Marjorie sick? Is she faking? Or is she possessed by the devil? Because they are broke, the Barretts take a rather modern solution to the problem by having a film crew chronicle them for a new reality TV show. VERDICT In this brilliantly creepy novel, Tremblay (The Little Sleep) uses the clever framing device of a reporter who wants to write a book about the Barretts by convincing Merry to tell her version of the events. The author also acknowledges the books and movies that influenced his story, most obviously Peter Blatty's The Exorcist but also Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. [See Prepub Alert, 12/15/15.]--MM

        Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        May 15, 2015
        Now here's a cool idea for a reality TV show: follow a family whose daughter is possessed by a demon. That's the set-up for this compelling horror story. The Barretts are an unremarkable suburban familyunremarkable, that is, until teenage daughter Marjorie starts undergoing a shocking mental breakdown. When traditional methods of curing her fail, the family turns to spiritual methods and eventually to an exorcism. Because they need the money, they agree to have their intimate lives played out on television screens around the world. Let's just say none of itthe exorcism and the reality showgoes well. It all goes very badly, indeed. The novel is stylishly written and well-conceived, with lifelike characters and an air of plausibility about it, as if all this really could happen. Tremblay, a Bram Stoker Award nominee, has delivered another quality horror novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

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WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

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...

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