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A review by andipants
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
2.0
I'm not normally a fan of possession stories -- it seems like so many of them rely on the premise, the "it-could-happen-to-you" factor, to scare the audience, rather than building up actual tension, and that doesn't work for me because -- controversial opinion time -- I don't believe in demons. A lot of them, this one included, also lean hard on the "is-it-a-demon-or-just-schizophrenia" angle, which gets zero mileage from me because my brain tends to go "yep, schizophrenia, next question." That said, I have certainly seen the odd possession story here and there that really worked for me, e.g. [b:My Best Friend's Exorcism|41015038|My Best Friend's Exorcism|Grady Hendrix|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533059241l/41015038._SY75_.jpg|46065002], and when I saw all the reviews about how pants-shittingly terrifying this one was supposed to be (including from Stephen King himself), I figured it might be worth a try.
Reader, my pants remain un-shitted.
There were certainly elements here that I enjoyed -- Merry is perhaps the most sympathetic and believable eight-year-old I've ever encountered outside of children's fiction. The author has clearly spent some time around kids, because her quirks and mannerisms felt spot-on. I also liked the content of the blog posts (even if the tone got annoying from time to time), although, counterintuitively, I think their presence actually detracted from the story as a whole. The dissection of horror tropes and clear-eyed (some might say cynical) analysis of the show as exploitative fiction fell right in line with my own thinking, but it also absolutely destroyed any kind of suspension of disbelief I might otherwise have built up for the "maybe it's real" argument. (And here is where the True Believers™ who go for the final twist will say,.)
In the end, the genre-savvy winks couldn't make up for how derivative the whole thing felt. All the creepy bits were shadows of movies you've already seen (as the blog posts so helpfully point out); even the major twist was lifted from. And the final little maybe-twist in the coffee shop was too little, too late for me; it wants to leave you guessing, unsettled, but at this point I don't really care enough to guess.
If you like possession stories, and particularly if you like worrying at that possessed-or-disturbed question, you might enjoy this book a whole lot more. It was competently done, and the characters are compelling. For me though, this just read as the tragic story of a mentally ill teenage girl who didn't get the help she needed, with horrific results. It was upsetting, certainly, but not in a creepy, fun Halloween way -- just in a depressed, we-need-to-fund-mental-healthcare sort of way.
Reader, my pants remain un-shitted.
There were certainly elements here that I enjoyed -- Merry is perhaps the most sympathetic and believable eight-year-old I've ever encountered outside of children's fiction. The author has clearly spent some time around kids, because her quirks and mannerisms felt spot-on. I also liked the content of the blog posts (even if the tone got annoying from time to time), although, counterintuitively, I think their presence actually detracted from the story as a whole. The dissection of horror tropes and clear-eyed (some might say cynical) analysis of the show as exploitative fiction fell right in line with my own thinking, but it also absolutely destroyed any kind of suspension of disbelief I might otherwise have built up for the "maybe it's real" argument. (And here is where the True Believers™ who go for the final twist will say,
Spoiler
"Ah, but that's exactly what the demon possessing Merry wants you to think!" Meh, sorry, still not convincedIn the end, the genre-savvy winks couldn't make up for how derivative the whole thing felt. All the creepy bits were shadows of movies you've already seen (as the blog posts so helpfully point out); even the major twist was lifted from
Spoiler
[b:We Have Always Lived in the Castle|89724|We Have Always Lived in the Castle|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415357189l/89724._SX50_.jpg|847007] -- Merry, Merricat, SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE, HUH, DIDJA SEE IT?If you like possession stories, and particularly if you like worrying at that possessed-or-disturbed question, you might enjoy this book a whole lot more. It was competently done, and the characters are compelling. For me though, this just read as the tragic story of a mentally ill teenage girl who didn't get the help she needed, with horrific results. It was upsetting, certainly, but not in a creepy, fun Halloween way -- just in a depressed, we-need-to-fund-mental-healthcare sort of way.