A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay

"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 Marjorie's 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, Marjorie's 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 of The 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 Marjorie's 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 surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil."

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published June 2nd 2015 by William Morrow

          The novel begins with an adult Merry attempting to recount her sister's "possession" for an author eager to write a nonfiction book about the event from Merry's memories. She tells the author about her younger self who thrives to grow up and be exactly like her older sister Marjorie. The sisters have a very close relationship, with Merry seeming to get a majority of her needs met by her sister. Merry has a story book in which Marjorie rewrites the original stories with Merry as the main character. Soon, though, Marjorie's stories become dark, scary and a little too real. Marjorie begins to scare Merry with her dark stories and Merry begins to keep to herself. In her cardboard playhouse, items begin to rearrange themselves just as things are in Marjorie's room. Their father, John, begins to become increasingly religious, forcing his beliefs on the family who are unaccepting and refuse to pray at dinner or go to church on Sunday. Between John being unemployed and the medical bills for Marjorie's ailment, the family is quickly running out of money. In desperation, their mother accepts John's plan of allowing a T.V. crew into their home to film a reality show portraying their life with a possessed teenager and her upcoming exorcism.
     Here the book starts to become uncannily reminiscent of The Exorcism, complete with the vomit, minus the 360 head turn. The exorcism in this book, well, I was disappointed. I won't ruin it for you, but I expected more with the HUGE buildup and up to this point I truly started to believe that Marjorie was possessed. But, I'll leave that for you to decide. Is she really possessed? (did she really hover in mid air??) Or is Marjorie just a sick girl who needs medical attention. 
I give this novel 4 stars. I got hooked from the beginning and it kept me until the end, even if it didn't go out with a bang. My advise - read it if you want a fast, chilling read. What do you think? Let me know.