A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Trembley

"Scared the living hell out of me, and I am pretty hard to scare." - Stephen King

Paul Tremblay has created an engrossing novel that you will think about long after you have finished. Several themes combine smoothly together - a family breakdown, the reality of TV production, religion, but above all, dealing with young daughters when one of them succumbs to acute schizophrenia, or worse. A reality show about the family was a sensation, and fifteen years later we look back on those events.

Narrated by the youngest daughter Merry, who now as an adult feels it's time to revisit the family home with an investigative author, she recalls the family struggles as their father could find no work. With mounting bills and little food, the last thing they need is their sullen 14 year old Marjorie to begin acting out in bizarre behaviour. The father has turned to religion and Father Wanderly for guidance, and the mother withdraws. Marjorie's terrors increase to the point she is literally climbing the walls, and performing acts only seen in horror movies. Physically possessed by Evil the only explanation. Father Wanderly finds the only solution a church sanctioned exorcism. To help the family financially, a TV crew is invited to film it as a reality show they title The Possession.

This is all told from 8 year old Merry's perspective, a girl longing to look up to her older sister and confused by her actions - until - Marjorie confides she has been faking the whole time. Very hard to believe as I was there with Merry and witnessed it with her. Is it a case of the two sisters banding together in a secret or is Marjorie lying? With no help from the parents, the girls must navigate the film crew invading and perhaps skewing the truth for the ratings of the show, and religion taking over their father's life, perhaps at the expense of his daughters.

The TV show is a surprise hit, bringing publicity and finances. Marjorie seems lucid when she confides her tricks to Merry, but is that the voice of Evil? A twist at the end only increases the ambiguity for me. All the events are recalled by Merry - but with time, nightmares, extrapolation, and skewed oral histories, is she a reliable witness?

Interspersed in the novel are blog posts from a fangirl of the show, detailing the episodes and the audience reaction. I found these a little jarring, adding little to the story.

Trembly has created a credible, modern update to a story of possession, told so many times since The Exorcist and Audrey Rose. As part of the Shirley Jackson Award jury, Tremblay fits comfortably within Jackson's themes of family, mental illness, and alienation.

If you look hard you would find the truth, but I find it a treat to mull over the different scenarios presented, and wonder about the characters.

" What is the truth, Merry? ...what I've read and researched and now heard from you, I'm not at all sure what really happened."

2015 / Hardcover / 286 pages