The New York Times Book Review - Terrence Rafferty
Paul Tremblay's terrific A Head Full of Ghosts generates a…pleasurable fog of calculated, perfectly balanced ambiguity…By the end…you may not be able to say with certainty whether Marjorie's demon exists, but you know in your bones that evil does.
From the Publisher
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. [It] is unlike any horror novel you’ve read, and yet hauntingly, frighteningly familiar.” — Sara Gran, author of Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead and Come Closer
“A Head Full of Ghosts doesn’t end just because you close the book. Some horror, it bleeds through the pages, gets onto your hands, stays with you. You’ll be thinking about this one long after you’ve read it.” — Stephen Graham Jones, author of Demon Theory and Ledfeather
“Paul Tremblay is an astonishingly talented writer, but even better, he’s twisted, and fun. A Head Full of Ghosts is mind-bending—scary, sad, sweet, funny, sick. ... . Terrifying, hilarious, smart, and satisfying.” — Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen, The Night Country, and A Prayer for the Dying
“Part psychological thriller, part demonic possession horror, this book is a juicy, fast-paced genre bombshell that just happens to be one of the smartest novels you’ll read this year.” — The Life Sentence
“A Head Full of Ghosts is one of the best novels released this year. ...Paul Tremblay confirms what we already knew: he’s one of the greatest horror writers today.” — This is Horror (UK)
“This will easily be remembered as one of the most powerfully disquieting and deeply unsettling novels of the year, and may mark something of a turning point in the mainstream horror genre.” — Shock Totem
“By turns horrifying, very funny, melancholy, ironic and, with each page, dazzlingly original, A Head Full of Ghosts is a one-book rocket ride through contemporary society where, if Evil doesn’t actually exist in a Biblical sense, we’re just the folks to invent it on our own.” — The Day newspaper
Buzzfeed
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.
B&N Reads
Gripping and truly scary, this book feels of the moment in a way few thrillers do.
The Guardian
[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.
NPR Books
Progressively gripping and suspenseful—(Tremblay’s) ultimate, bloodcurdling revelation is as sickeningly satisfying as it is masterful.
Stephen King
A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I’m pretty hard to scare.
Booklist
The novel is stylishly written and well-conceived.
New York Times Book Review
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.
Booklist
The novel is stylishly written and well-conceived.
B&N Reads
Gripping and truly scary, this book feels of the moment in a way few thrillers do.
SFRevu
[A] creepy, interesting read, great for horror fans.
BookPage
[A] scary story, indeed.
The Life Sentence
Part psychological thriller, part demonic possession horror, this book is a juicy, fast-paced genre bombshell that just happens to be one of the smartest novels you’ll read this year.
Megan Abbott
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.
Stewart O'Nan
Paul Tremblay is an astonishingly talented writer, but even better, he’s twisted, and fun. A Head Full of Ghosts is mind-bending—scary, sad, sweet, funny, sick. ... . Terrifying, hilarious, smart, and satisfying.
Cara Hoffman
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.
Elizabeth Hand
A Head Full of Ghosts 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.
Shock Totem
This will easily be remembered as one of the most powerfully disquieting and deeply unsettling novels of the year, and may mark something of a turning point in the mainstream horror genre.
Ellen Datlow
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.
Sara Gran
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. [It] is unlike any horror novel you’ve read, and yet hauntingly, frighteningly familiar.
This is Horror (UK)
A Head Full of Ghosts is one of the best novels released this year. ...Paul Tremblay confirms what we already knew: he’s one of the greatest horror writers today.
The Day newspaper
By turns horrifying, very funny, melancholy, ironic and, with each page, dazzlingly original, A Head Full of Ghosts is a one-book rocket ride through contemporary society where, if Evil doesn’t actually exist in a Biblical sense, we’re just the folks to invent it on our own.
Stephen Graham Jones
A Head Full of Ghosts doesn’t end just because you close the book. Some horror, it bleeds through the pages, gets onto your hands, stays with you. You’ll be thinking about this one long after you’ve read it.
Library Journal
06/15/2015
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
School Library Journal
01/01/2016
A creepy but not too creepy title. Young Marjorie Barrett is possessed by a demon, and her family decide to allow a TV crew to film them and the possession episodes, with an exorcism to be the series finale. Not surprisingly, this goes very, very badly. The novel's narrator is Marjorie's younger sister, Merry, who tells the story from her current perspective as a 23-year-old adult and from her point of view at eight years old, as the events at the Barrett house transpired. And then there's Karen, a blogger rewatching the TV series while live blogging about the episodes. What actually happened in the Barrett household and whether or not Marjorie was possessed are discussed by all three narrators—readers will have to decide if any of them is reliable. One of the more interesting moments in the work occurs in Merry's apartment when she meets with a reporter to discuss the possession and the reporter sees shelves of classic possession books and DVDs, except for one glaring omission (the missing title, Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, should give readers a heads-up about what's really going on). The horror here is less graphic than in The Exorcist or The Omen and will appeal to readers who aren't sure how deeply into the genre they want to go. Merry's bookshelves will provide a great bibliography for next reads. VERDICT The questions surrounding what possession is (and is not) as well as how television crews can manipulate reality will intrigue readers.—Laura Pearle, Milton Academy, MA
