Paul Tremblay’s “A Head Full of Ghosts” is a chilling exploration of a family’s disintegration when their fourteen-year-old daughter begins displaying signs of severe mental illness—or is it demonic possession? This meticulously crafted novel weaves together elements of psychological horror, media criticism, and family trauma to create a deeply unsettling reading experience that lingers long after the final page.
The Barrett Family’s Descent into Hell
Set in suburban New England, the novel follows the Barrett family—father John, mother Sarah, teenage daughter Marjorie, and eight-year-old Merry—as they grapple with Marjorie’s increasingly disturbing behavior. What begins as strange stories and unsettling comments from Marjorie quickly evolves into something more sinister: self-inflicted wounds, violent outbursts, and knowledge she seemingly shouldn’t possess.
When medical intervention fails to help Marjorie, the financially struggling family turns to two desperate measures: allowing a Catholic priest to perform an exorcism and agreeing to document the entire process for a reality TV show called “The Possession.” The dual narratives of Merry as a child experiencing these events and Merry as a twenty-three-year-old recounting them to a writer named Rachel create a fascinating tension, constantly forcing readers to question what’s real, what’s remembered, and what’s been influenced by the distorting lens of media and time.
Masterful Unreliable Narration
One of Tremblay’s greatest strengths in “A Head Full of Ghosts” is his manipulation of the unreliable narrator device. The story primarily unfolds through Merry’s perspective—both as a child witnessing the events and as an adult reflecting on them. The eight-year-old Merry provides a naive, limited understanding of what’s happening to her sister, while the adult Merry attempts to make sense of these memories while acknowledging they’ve been contaminated by the reality show, online commentary, and her own trauma.
This narrative structure brilliantly serves the novel’s central ambiguity: Is Marjorie mentally ill or demonically possessed? By filtering events through Merry’s perspective, Tremblay maintains this uncertainty while exploring how perception shapes reality. The occasional blog posts from horror critic “Karen Brissette” (later revealed to be adult Merry herself) add another layer of commentary, analyzing the reality show through a critical, meta-horror lens.
Media as Modern Monster
The novel offers a scathing critique of media exploitation, particularly reality television’s willingness to commodify suffering. “The Possession” transforms the Barrett family’s tragedy into entertainment, with producers manipulating scenes, selective editing, and using dramatic music to heighten tension and sensationalize the family’s pain.
Tremblay extends this criticism to religious media as well, as Father Wanderly seems more concerned with creating dramatic television moments than genuinely helping Marjorie. The novel explores how these narratives—both secular and religious—shape our understanding of events, often distorting truth in service of a more compelling story.
Horror That Resists Easy Classification
What makes “A Head Full of Ghosts” particularly effective as horror is that it refuses to provide easy answers. The novel pays homage to possession classics like “The Exorcist” while simultaneously deconstructing their tropes. Marjorie herself references these connections, suggesting she might be performing symptoms she’s seen in horror films rather than experiencing genuine possession.
The horror elements are psychologically driven rather than relying on graphic violence. The most disturbing aspects come from the subtle distortions in family dynamics, the gradual disintegration of trust, and the growing sense that something is fundamentally wrong in the Barrett household. When physical horror does appear—such as Marjorie’s self-harm or the climactic exorcism scene—it’s all the more impactful for its sparseness.
Strengths and Weaknesses
What Shines:
Psychological complexity: Tremblay creates multidimensional characters whose actions feel authentic even in extraordinary circumstances.
Narrative structure: The layered storytelling enhances the ambiguity and builds tension effectively.
Cultural commentary: The novel offers insightful critique of media exploitation, religious fundamentalism, and mental health stigma.
Atmosphere: The Barrett house becomes a character itself, with its layout growing increasingly disorienting and threatening.
Where It Sometimes Falters:
Pacing issues: The middle section occasionally feels repetitive, with similar disturbing incidents stacking up without advancing the narrative.
Resolution ambiguity: While the intentional ambiguity is largely effective, some readers may find the lack of concrete answers regarding Marjorie’s condition frustrating rather than thought-provoking.
Blog post sections: The “Last Final Girl” blog entries, while offering interesting commentary, sometimes interrupt the narrative flow and can feel didactic.
Character development: While Merry and Marjorie are fully realized, the parents—particularly John—occasionally verge on becoming archetypes rather than complex individuals.
Crafting Terror from Everyday Family Life
What truly elevates “A Head Full of Ghosts” is Tremblay’s ability to extract horror from ordinary family dynamics. The novel explores how economic stress, parental conflict, and sibling relationships can become distorted under extreme pressure. John’s unemployment and growing religious fanaticism, Sarah’s increasing detachment and substance use, Marjorie’s mental deterioration, and Merry’s confused loyalty and fear all combine to create a perfect storm of family dysfunction.
The most disturbing revelation comes in the novel’s final act, when adult Merry reveals her role in the family’s tragic end—a confession that forces readers to reevaluate everything they thought they understood about the Barrett family’s destruction.
Literary Connections and Influences
Tremblay skillfully integrates references to other horror texts, creating a dialogue with the genre’s history. From explicit references to “The Exorcist” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” to subtler nods to Shirley Jackson and H.P. Lovecraft, the novel demonstrates a deep understanding of horror traditions while forging its own path.
Unlike Tremblay’s earlier crime novels “The Little Sleep” and “No Sleep Till Wonderland,” which featured detective Mark Genevich, “A Head Full of Ghosts” marked a shift toward more psychologically complex horror that would continue in later works like “Disappearance at Devil’s Rock” and “The Cabin at the End of the World.” This novel established him as a significant voice in literary horror, alongside contemporaries like Stephen Graham Jones and Laird Barron.
Final Verdict: A Modern Horror Classic
“A Head Full of Ghosts” succeeds because it understands that the most effective horror comes from uncertainty—the spaces between what we know, what we think we know, and what we fear might be true. By refusing to provide definitive answers about Marjorie’s condition, Tremblay forces readers to confront uncomfortable questions about family, faith, mental illness, and the stories we tell to make sense of suffering.
For readers of psychological horror who appreciate stories that prioritize atmosphere and ambiguity over shock and gore, “A Head Full of Ghosts” delivers a thoughtfully constructed, genuinely unsettling experience. It’s a novel that respects its readers’ intelligence while challenging their assumptions, rewarding careful reading with deeper layers of meaning and lingering questions that haunt long after the book is finished.
Recommended for fans of:
Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”
Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves”
Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects“
Stephen King’s “The Shining”
Films like “The Babadook” and “Hereditary” that explore family trauma through horror
Whether you interpret the events as supernatural possession or psychological breakdown ultimately says more about your own beliefs than anything definitively established in the text—and that’s precisely what makes “A Head Full of Ghosts” so effectively disturbing and thought-provoking.