A Head Full of Ghosts


By Paul Tremblay

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​I’ve had this one sitting on my Kindle for a long time now…five years, but who’s counting. Just waiting for the right time to read it. Well, the time has come.

A Head Full of Ghosts comes with a lot of hype: Bram Stoker award winner, comparisons to: The Shining, The Haunting of Hill House, The Exorcist. Those are some big shoes to fill. It really sets a reader’s expectations high.

Tremblay has a novel concept with A Head Full of Ghosts, you’ve got a reality television show within the story with an intriguing podcast on the side and a tell-all book in development. There’s some stuff going on that pulls you in and out of the story itself. What is real within Tremblay’s story? What is “enhanced” for the drama? What in the hell is really going on here?

A Head Full of Ghosts left me with more questions than answers. I’m okay with that…let the reader decide what they want it to be. Tremblay has actually created a story where two people may actually have read a different story within their heads…kudos!

There is a really good cast of intricate characters within A Head Full of Ghosts; we meet them all through the eyes of our eight-year-old protagonist, Merry (not exactly the most reliable source for concrete facts). Tremblay’s characters are purposefully layered and difficult to pin down…adding to the: what-the-hell-really-happened factor.

Tremblay did a fabulous job of pulling everything together in the end, while still leaving it all a wee bit unclear, a masterful trick. While I had some troubles getting into A Head Full of Ghosts (that’s on me, not Tremblay), once I really got going, I did not want to stop.

Did it meet all of my expectations? No, but a solid story.



*4 Stars

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