New quality on the literary market
Novel head full of ghosts is a combination of both dramatic family tragedy, psychological suspense , horror and modern. Reading it brings to mind many popular literary propositions – Carrie Stephen King, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, House of Leaves by Marek Z. Danielewski, Haunted House on the Hill by Shirley Jackson or Let me inJohn Lindqvist. The Barret family lead an ordinary life in a New England suburb. Their life is changed brutally by the disease (?) Of Marjorie’s daughter – the first diagnosis is likely schizophrenia. Despite strenuous efforts, the girl’s condition worsened and she fell into madness more and more. The father of the family is willing to ask the local clergyman, Father Wanderly, for help. In the meantime, the Barrets establish cooperation with a television crew who wants to film the adventures of the family (a production company cooperating with the Discovery Channel). A reality show inspired by the life of the Barrets is called Possession .
Contemporary formula
Paul Tremblay’s novel is particularly interesting because of the formula of the interview that organizes the plot – the best-selling writer talks to Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. Additionally, the book features a blog review of the mentioned reality show, although at first we do not know who its author is. Interestingly, Possession is interpreted fifteen years after the program was broadcast by the Discovery Channel. The creator of the blog reveals the details of the pilot episode and shares her feelings about the entire series with the reader. It cannot be denied that the Head is full of ghostsis an intertwined novel: we learn about the Barret family’s past, we analyze an interview with her younger sister Marjorie, and we read a pop-culture reality show review, incidentally divergent in relation to real events (Merry tells about it in an interview with the writer – the eight-year-old made up some stories, giving them a climate ). So we could consider a head full of ghosts as a combination of psychological thriller, horror and reportage.
The ending word
A head full of ghosts is referred to as a horror novel, although the theme of possession would suggest a different order. Tremblay constructs the story in such a way that the reader eagerly plunges into madness with the characters, realizing with each page that this story cannot have a positive ending. The story is bound by Merry, whose perspective organizes the memories raised in the novel. Pessimistic overtone of a Head full of ghostsis related to the criticism that the author weaves into his fictional story. Tremblay does not spare the public, the media, or the church community. It should be emphasized that due to the compilation of various genre elements, the atmosphere of the novel is unfortunately not uniform – the story from the eight-year perspective of Merry will be the most interesting for thriller / horror fans, while the information provided to the reader during the interview or in the review will be only consistent (not necessarily that interesting) addition to the whole.
