A Head Full of Ghosts

Congratulations Paul Tremblay, you managed to creep me out and made me lose some sleep. Oh, and I really didn't want to turn off my bedroom light at night either. 

I admit it, I'm a scaredy pants and the subject of demonic possession fascinates and scares me at the same time. I cannot watch the film adaptation of The Exorcist, because scary make up and demon voice, but the book bored me to death and didn't bother me but A Head Full of Ghosts just got to me and in a bad way. 

Our narrator, Merry, relives the events that lead up to the exorcism of her fourteen year old sister Marjorie. There is a catch though and the catch is Merry shares her story with us 15 years after the fact. Merry was only 8 when everything went down so her memory isn't that reliable and she doesn't know much other than what she personally experienced or flat out made up. 

From Merry's recollections she notices Marjorie's odd behavior when Marjorie starts telling her stories like the story of the tragic Boston North End molasses flood of 1919 which she claims no prior knowledge of until it just pops into her head one morning and a creepy story she just made up about vines that grow everywhere and take over everything. Merry doesn't like these stories or the other things Marjorie just claims to know and to have always known. Things deteriorate to the point that Merry's father turns to the Catholic church and is convinced that an exorcism is the only thing that can help Marjorie and things get even worse when somehow  a production company gets wind of Marjorie's supposed possession and decide they want to document it for a show on the Discovery channel. 

I've always felt that a true possession would be more subtle than the histrionics of The Exorcist, Tremblay does give us the usual cliches and uses them to good effect, I almost threw up during the vomit scene. I also had a "Hey it's that guy!, well actually girl." moment. Tremblay gives us in depth analysis of the documentary via a blog written by one Karen Brissette. She's my friend on Goodreads and writes some of the funniest and smartest reviews out there, he doesn't nail it but he gets pretty close. But alas this Karen Brissette isn't the Karen Brissette on Goodreads.

Tremblay gives us an ending that is pure Shirley Jackson, I won't tell which Jackson story though, it would ruin the ending for you. This is a good read for Halloween.