A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel [Paperback]

WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen KingsThe Shining, Shirley JacksonsThe Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter BlattysThe Exorcist.

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.

To her parents despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjories descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts plight. With John, Marjories 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 ofThe Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjories younger sister, Merry. 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 surfaceand a mind-bending tale of family tragedy and psychological horror is unleashed, blurring the line between mental illness and demonic possession and raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

“Terrific. . . . Generates a haze of an altogether more serious kind: the pleasurable fog of calculated, perfectly balanced ambiguity.”—New York Times Book Review

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