Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

57 reviews

add_a_little_spook's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

alicemorrison1029's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

i loved reading this book. the overall experience was fantastic, but the ending left me unsatisfied. i understand what the author was trying to achieve: he wanted the readers to decide what they thought truly happened to marjorie/john/merry for themselves—what was the true explanation for marjorie’s mental state/behavior: possession or mental illness,

why did marjorie want the rest of the family to be killed, and what is the implication at the end about merry’s soul/spirit?

while usually an ambiguous ending like this would be enjoyable for me, i feel like this specific story requires more answers/explanation to leave the readers feeling satisfied, because, even though i enjoyed the book overall, i wanted more from the ending and was left feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

kamasola's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

frankieatthedisco's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dale1997's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

readingwithgoose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm and Vomit

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: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Domestic abuse and Forced institutionalization

ilaxaria's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Pedophilia, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

via_email's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry