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A Head Full of Ghosts
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
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Summary
A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.
The lives of the Barretts, a suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to halt 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 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 best-selling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls the terrifying events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories begin to surface, and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed.
Critic reviews
"Terrific.... Generates a haze of an altogether more serious kind: the pleasurable fog of calculated, perfectly balanced ambiguity." ( The New York Times Book Review)
What listeners say about A Head Full of Ghosts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dallas Winston 9
- 19-01-17
Entertaining but where were the scares?
Would you try another book written by Paul Tremblay or narrated by Joy Osmanski?
Not likely. It was a fairly good story I just thought it was not in the same league as the Exorcist.
Would you recommend A Head Full of Ghosts to your friends? Why or why not?
No. Lack of good scares let the listen down for me. I felt there were moments that could have been so much more intense and gripping. Though the characters were all empathetic, the setting was believable, the format was creative, the story, for me, lacked suspense.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Joy Osmanski?
She would not put me off. This story needed a female voice and she did a fair job. Joy was especially good at the two sisters. The blog bits were good.
If this book were a film would you go see it?
I'dbiy it on DVD perhaps.
Any additional comments?
I maybe sound a bit harsh, especially since it wasn't a bad listen but I bought it expecting horror. Plus I listened to the Exorcist two months ago and that book did so much more than this one. I'm a Constant Reader and recognised Stephen King's influence on the author, so other fans of his might enjoy this. The author did do some creative things with the narrative. But not a scary book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jodi
- 06-07-19
Enjoyable
Really enjoyed this but I just have to say that it isn’t remotely scary- I say that because if like me you don’t like scary stuff then the description of this could easily put you off as it almost did me.
Give it a go though as it’s a really interesting and enjoyable read.
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1 person found this helpful
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- D. Ryan
- 07-09-19
good story bad narrator
I loved the story, its creepy and like a modern day exorcist, what I didnt enjoy was the narration, honestly I'd get more emotion asking Alexa to narrate for me.. the entire first half is monotone, there's no effort with character voices.. other than that, great book.
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- N82
- 13-09-24
Awful narration
The story was OK, not scary, sad, if anything. It's a slow burn, with all the shocks coming right at the end.
But I really couldn't stand the narration. The male voices were comical, which is not the mood of the book at all. And I hope the reading of the blog posts was intentionally so irritating... The narrator also mispronouced some words, which shakes the listener out of the story somewhat.
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- Jus Shemare
- 17-12-16
Haunting
Possible one of the best audio books I've listened to this year. The best stories don't just end, this one I will be thinking about for a while.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Suzanne
- 22-01-19
Underwhelming
I had high hopes for this book but it was underwhelming for me. I found the main character very whiny, which is probably appropriate for a child in the situation in the book, which made it difficult to have any empathy for her, In fact, I couldn't form any connection to any of the characters, which made them rather 2 dimensional.
The bits with the blogger were very annoying!
The story itself was okay, more a social commentary than horror, and that was interesting.
It was an okay listen but I wouldn't listen to it a second time.
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- vicky ross
- 01-04-18
hmmmm not as good as I hoped
summary sounds inviting but found book was big let down hence I wouldnt be able to honestly recommend to other readers sorry
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- Owen Engwell
- 01-06-20
A great story about mental illness
This was a very good story about aa young girl struggling with what I believe to be mental illness.
The protagonist of this novel is a woman telling a journalist a harrowing tale of something traumatic from her past involving her older sister, that twists and turns and crescendoes into a disturbing and very poignant ending.
Many comparisons have been drawn to The Exorcist (including by the novels blogger who mentions both Blattys novel and Friedkins movie several times), however this was not the case for me. The Exorcist is a tale of Demonic possession in its rawest form. It is also a novel about Good VS Evil. The only common thread is the protagonist being someone other than the possessed person. The protagonist of The Exorcist is not Regan Mcneil but Lancaster Merrin.
This novel is about a family torn apart by schizophrenia. So much so that when the story staatrs going into religion, Exorcism and mass hysteria you can't help but hate the father for exploiting what I believe he knows is mental illness for his own gain to the point that our schizoohrenic/possessed character believes she is helping her family.
Add a TV crew into the mix and chaos ensues.
The priests in this movie are not the good guys, they are portrayed as unsympathetic and more evil than the demon they so badly want to cast out on live TV.
The TV crew will also make you feel sick to your stomach. There was no privacy given to this family to discuss and help their daughter/sister.
All in all a very good and thought provoking read.
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- Olivia Hicklenton
- 30-07-21
brilliant horror story with amazing description
fab book, great story and great characters. so different as told from multiple perspectives one being a child
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- Kirsty Caffrey
- 25-06-19
Excellent
Not my usual genre, however, I decided to give it a go as it has been endorsed by Stephen King. I was not disappointed. Brilliantly written and you'll want to keep your light on........
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