Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

32 reviews

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Horrifyingly tragic, A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay is filled to the brim with terrible scenes, all told from the point of view of the youngest character to witness everything. I just felt so bad the entire time reading this for not just Marjorie and Merry, who were just kids, but also characters like Sarah and Ken; who while aren't blameless entirely, are forced to witness a lot of this horror with seemingly no agency to fight against it. 

I also felt really bad that the one who I felt more creeped out by was not Marjorie, with her gruesome stories and actions, but Merry, who seemed to take glee from her and her sister's trauma. Merry should be a somewhat reliable narrator as a kid, aside from her shoddy memory. There isn't a reason to suspect her of leaving things out. However, I felt wary all the same as Merry became known for being an exaggerator and a storyteller. There's a few reveals later on in the book that highlight this fact and it just made me very suspicious of someone who is just a very traumatized child/person. 

Tremblay has done a fantastic job here with this book. A reader questioning a narrator's true feelings makes for good conversation and deeper reading. I am so torn with Merry as a character. My initial feelings were as stated above: Merry is creepy for the way she expresses her thoughts on the situation and her sister. However, after I finished the book, I couldn't help but think that maybe Merry was just trying to find her own way of understanding what all happened in her childhood, everything that led up to the greatest tragedy of her life. Afterward, all I could see was a girl-now-adult, still struggling to figure out why her sister acted the way she did, what her sister could've been thinking throughout it all.

When I started this book, the summary had not prepared me for the gruesome descriptions Tremblay employed, nor how sad a story this really was. I just felt so bad for Marjorie, more than anything. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her, and needed to be taken out of the home and cameras that were definitely making things worse. I am curious to know of other's opinions of the portrayal of schizophrenia in this book. I did not touch on it as I am not an expert on the condition, nor do I have the condition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Self harm, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Drug use, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse and Confinement

simp4sneks's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Misogyny

Minor: Ableism, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Child death, Death of parent, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

defeating_my_demons's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

jesscoast's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. Ive ventured into a few horror novellas before but this was truly haunting. Ideal for a horror movie buff who gets the references to the iconic pop culture moments and classics scattered throughout the book. But even as someone like myself who hasn't seen many scary films, this was worth the read. From a mystery and thriller standpoint, it caught me off guard how well crafted it was. Tremblay takes is down a dark, depressing, uncomfortable rabbit hole of a struggling family dealing with religion, a child's behavioral issue, financial stress, marital tension. A silver bullet arrives in the form of a reality TV show to offer financial relief in return for giving up their privacy and facing the wrath of protest. Just when you think that's about as heavy as it can get, Tremblay turns the whole narrative on its head.

The meta stories within stories framed around the family, the reality tv show, and online analysis of the show was brilliant. It kept my eyes glued to the page and I couldn't get enough.

If you think a story about a teenaged girl acting out can't be chilling, think again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Excrement, and Mental illness

yllex's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Vomit, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Body horror, Murder, and Blood

gbyronwilliams's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Excrement, Murder, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, and Excrement

Minor: Sexual assault, Bullying, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Body horror, and Blood

abbsgabs's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Self harm and Excrement

thebigemmt505's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“Maybe I'm just a lost, confused kid, scared of what's happening to me, to my family, to the world, and I hate school and I have no friends, and I spend my days sleeping with my iPod cranked up as loud as it'll go, trying not to go completely crazy, and with all that time alone I'm looking shit up on the Internet, looking up the same stuff over and over, and I memorize it all because I'm wicked smart, because I have to fill my head with something other than the ghosts.”

A Head Full of Ghosts is a novel that turns the typical possession story on it’s head. The audience follows Merry, the youngest daughter of the Barrett family, now an adult, as she recounts the bizarre happenings of her childhood in unreliable detail. 

The story is engaging and tense throughout. It doesn’t have the typical ultra-fast pace that most possession stories have, though it compensates through it’s extra layer of mystery. The reader is meant to believe something “more” is going on with the characters ; one isn’t ever able to fully dismiss the possibility Marjorie is possessed, but one can’t really believe it either. The characters are at the same time deep and shallow, constrained to archetypes yet clearly immensely flawed. The horror, though never truly “horrific,” is successfully unsettling and upsetting. The format of the story is also rather unique and engaging, with multiple perspectives all from one narrator. 

That being said, the book isn’t without flaws. There’s quite a bit of clunky writing, sentences that go on for much too long, separated by too many commas all in a way that may-be-intentional-for-the-character-but-is-still-offputting-sometimes, and it makes the reader either scurry over words or repeat sentences that flow in a too-strange way (see what I did there?). The writing isn’t bad ; it’s certainly engaging and meant to fit the off-beat character, but it is rather messy at points. There is also a huge amount of horror references in the book. References aren’t inherently an issue, and clearly the immensity of them is intentional, though it’s still distracting from the main narrative. The writing is redundant at points, with parts of the plot being repeated multiple times. The moments of redundancy and the long droning sentences make for many “please get to the point”s. 

Aside from it’s flaws, the book is great! It’s entertaining and fun for any horror fan. The themes are interesting and I’ll be thinking about what “really happened” and deconstructing Merry as a character in my head for awhile.  I recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Gore, and Grief

bhender3's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

exhumedprince's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Stalking, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Misogyny, Excrement, Alcohol, and Alcoholism