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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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A very clever 'haunting'. Pls read whole review...

I'd been recommended Paul Tremblay as an author as I'm a fan of horror and when this and another of his books were in my wish list as well as an audible credit BOGOF deal I jumped in! I start off this review with a couple of negatives, but purely personal views and shouldn't prejudice against a great 'read' so pls read all my (again, personal) thoughts.

To get the first monkey off my back, I have to say I wasn't a fan of the narrator when she did 'male' voices. As limited as they were they came across as comical and took the edge of some moments unfortunately. That said, Joy Osmanski did an excellent job of the female characters, even the different voices for the same people i.e. through the ages.

The second monkey was that although I really enjoyed this book, i didn't find it scary. I enjoy reading and watching horror, but although they never really give me the frights they hold my suspense, while perhaps feel they lose something for me personally in the audio format. This held me, but if you are similar to me you aren't in for a horrific time... unfortunately.

But this was still a great book as you can see from my score. So classing this as a psychological thriller, it holds it's own as we care about characters, what they're going through and how they themselves feel at any given moment. If flits between a 'now and then' storyline but they aren't that far apart (less than 20 years) so we have contemporary view to the situation which makes a nice change for this 'Exorcist' type setting rather than the old, Victorian gothic or mental wards and horrendous medical practices of yesteryear i.e. digital technology, mobile phones, clued up teenagers and a progressive view of mental health.

For fans of the horror genre part of the premise may seem overdone, possessed young girl needs an exorcism, but the great thing is the author Paul Tremblay more than eludes to this in the book, almost debunking his own storyline as we go as we follow the perspective of the possessed younger sister as a child and adult. But it never detracts from what he trying to convey.

It is a very clever book, well researched and written and never feels like a carbon copy of anything you may have read or watched before. Tremblay's blogging character who reviews the TV show the possession is based on, ironically The Possession, has a great knowledge of films, both horror and filming techniques (which as a media student I appreciated but it didn't go into boring detail) and the classic stories to refer to. Clever, not just in terms of factual detail but how the possessed girl thinks, what she knows, what she makes you think & feel as well as twists along the way.

I don't want to give much away, but thoroughly enjoyed it and have The Devils Disappearance lined up in my queue for a soon to be listened to experience. Glad I gave Tremblay a go - thanks audible!

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8 people found this helpful