The standard horror fare may at times have lacked credibility for a sceptic like me, but the way the media invades and destroys people's lives is all too real. But, for me, the real horror was the way a distressed and dysfunctional family can be persuaded to appear in a reality TV show and have their lives turned inside out by an exorcism screened live on television. It was partly the screaming, the erratic behaviour, the plants coming up through the cellar, etc., which made me want to look over my shoulder. So was the novel scary? I must say that I didn't read this book at bedtime.

And I was certainly intrigued by the highly original storyline described in the blurb: when Marjorie, a teenage girl, starts behaving erratically, her family can't cope and call in the local priest and, ultimately, a TV crew who start to film a reality show about exorcisms. Or maybe I was interested to see how Paul Tremblay dealt with the schizophrenic behaviour of his teenage protagonist. But A Head full of Ghosts appealed to me, somehow - perhaps I was just curious to read the novel that scared the living hell out of Stephen King. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface-and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.I don't normally go in for horror stories, mainly because I usually can't take them seriously enough to suspend disbelief. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.įifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. With John, Marjorie’s father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show.

He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. To her parents’ despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie’s descent into madness. SYNOPSIS: The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. RELEASED: June 2nd, 2015 William Morrow Paperbacks

A headful of ghosts