Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

50 reviews

evanaviary's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

maybe the real demons were the friends we made along the way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide attempt

hellokatya's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

i wanted to like this book; i went in so excited but it really just fell flat. i had read in someone else’s review about the blog posts being out of place, and considering there wasn’t much done with them — and it spoiled the biggest twist — i am also not a fan. i feel like the story being told on chronological order, through the unreliable perspective of an 8 year old would’ve served the book a lot better. saddened to see the loss of the potential it had.
 try hard to pick back up once i’d put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror, Grief, and Vomit

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, and Pedophilia

brookey8888's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It was interesting and the way it was told was intriguing, but it kind of just made me sad. Also I’m pretty sure this is classified as horror, but there was maybe like one creepy part(that I skipped over because I do not need to read graphic details about a 14 year old masturbating). Honestly it was just depressing to read about these girls and the mental illness and honestly the annoying father(which is kind of the point, but I just didn’t really expect that). I also did not like the ending like it was just so anticlimactic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Vomit, Alcohol, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, and Murder

james1star's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is the third book by Tremblay I’ve read and I will not be reading any more because once again this was just very meh. The story is told through the POV of Merry who is now twenty three as she’s talking with a reporter about the anniversary of a TV show airing that focused on her family. As she’s talking we’re transported back to Merry at age eleven and how her fourteen year old sister Marjorie starts to deal with a mental health illness (schizophrenia?) that is later thought to be the result of her being possessed. Their father consults the ‘expertise’ of a Father Wanderley who pushes for an exorcism. Media coverage of the family begins and so does a TV show leading up to Marjorie’s exorcism. The family deal with financial issues and there’s a possibility Marjorie is faking it but we don’t really know. 

The more horror-ish elements of the book were alright I’d say, it’s more psychological and a lot of Marjorie’s actions were typical of the ‘possessed’ person which were rather gross and unpleasant to read. It did feel a little like a rip-off of the film ‘The Exorcist’ at times and just generally wasn’t the most intriguing read. Much of the story rests on the idea of what is and isn’t the truth and whilst I was interested at the start, I didn’t really care as the book developed and the characters were all very meh that I just lost interest. I think the book can appeal to more people then the others I read by Tremblay (Cabin and Pallbearers) but once again it just fell flat proving to be an unenjoyable reading experience on the whole. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, Gore, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Body horror, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Death, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Murder

erica_reads_things's review

dark mysterious reflective 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

An edge-of-your-seat-cant-put-this-down read diving into the horror tropes of possession and exorcism and highlighting the problematic history of exorcism within the Church. I loved the characters and trajectory of this book. The inserts of the horror blog examining the eventual reality show in the story was so clever. I could not put this book down and I think I'll be thinking of this one for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Blood, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child death, Body horror, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Gore, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Domestic abuse

atthediscotech's review

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Ending was good until “The twist”. The twist made it less interesting. 3.5 bc the twist was a let down. I would have given it 5 without it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Mental illness

ilaxaria's review

dark mysterious sad 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: Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Murder, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Excrement

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Pedophilia

august_18's review

dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Gore, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Gaslighting and Bullying

thereadingdude's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Murder, Alcoholism, Gore, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Child abuse

Minor: Excrement and Homophobia

savvylit's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A Head Full of Ghosts is a well-crafted possession story made even more horrible and thrilling due to the youth of its primary narrator, seven-year-old Merry. Like many younger siblings, Merry worships teenage Marjorie and longs for her attention. Merry's voice is so genuine in this story - I was really impressed by Tremblay's skill at evoking the specific terror that comes from being a child who is kept out of the loop. Despite her naivete, Merry is still so deeply and traumatically affected by the events of Marjorie's possession.

This story is also delightfully meta! There are a series of blog posts by a horror fanatic included throughout the novel. Reading the blog's dissection of the events of this story with comparisons to tropes and classic cinema made for a very fun read.

If you like thrillers that have fresh takes on classic themes, you will definitely enjoy A Head Full of Ghosts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death