Just Finished Reading A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul G. Tremblay

I follow Stephen King on Twitter, and he uses it a lot to express himself on different issues...more often than not to bash Trump.  Another thing he does a lot on it is recommend books to read: Paul G. Tremblay's 2015 horror novel A Head Full of Ghosts is one he has promoted...so I checked it out and just finished reading it.  My reactions...

If you want to create a scenario of true horror, then combining different scenarios horrible in their own right...like demon-possession, exorcism, paranoid ranting, and reality television...makes for a pretty explosive formula.  Yet as revolting as much of Tremblay's tale was, he deftly crafted it into an unexpectedly rational narrative whose ending made a kind of terrible sense...although it was very, very, disturbing and upsetting.  On the surface the story features a "typical" American family, with the father, mother, older sister (Marjorie) and younger sister (Merry) going through their typical American middle-class lives...until, that is, Marjorie starts to display disturbing behavior, which she claims is coming from voices speaking to her within her head.  The parents are at a loss and completely at odds with each other on how to deal with Marjorie's worsening apparent psychosis: the father, immersing himself into an offshoot sect of Christianity, seeks exorcism, convincing himself she is possessed while the mother, who rejects organized religion, wants secular medical treatment. The father wins out and then a reality TV show is set up to film the family through their ordeals, providing them with money to help with their burgeoning expenses.  The story, told from a future time by an adult Merry to a writer she is entrusting with her experiences, is centered around little Merry's place in the family and as Marjorie's main confidant and friend...as well as the chief witness to some of her scariest acts.  Their family crisis was difficult enough to read through, but having to put up with cameramen, directors, and producers traipsing though their house and rooms...along with the angry protesters lined up outside...lent the story a creepiness that verged on the obscene.  This is a tale of severe psychological warfare and I definitely do NOT recommend it to anyone with insomnia, nightmare issues, or weak constitutions.  Still, as I said before, the author crafted the whole thing very well: after all, this is a horror story. Read it at your own risk...if you read Stephen King's Thinner and were upset with how that one turned out, then you probably don't want to pick up A Head Full of Ghosts.  As for me, I think I'll be a little more circumspect about Mr. King's literary endorsements in the future...