A Head Full of Ghosts is a Tragic ‘Possession’ Story that Will Break Your Heart

I kept hearing from multiple horror fans that A Head Full of Ghosts is one of the best horror stories ever written. I was finally able to read the novel when my family gave it to me as a Christmas present.

I finished the book on New Years Eve.

In one day.

I don’t normally finish horror novels this fast, but this one had me hooked from its first page.

I’m going to delve into major spoilers right now, so please feel free to escape from this article! I highly recommend for any horror fan to read this book; the story is one of the most perfect ‘possession stories’ ever made!

We follow the story of a woman named Meredith, who talks about her childhood trauma with an interviewer named Rachel.

Meredith or Merry is considered to be seen as an unreliable narrator from the beginning of the novel. Since she went through horrific childhood memories at the age of eight, she struggles to remember how everything happened with her family.

Merry’s older sister named Majorie was possessed by a demon, who made her family’s life a living hell. It didn’t help that Merry’s family was struggling financially, so the stress was at an all-time high.

I felt so stressed myself, because Majorie’s possession scenes were freaking scary.

Why did I do this to myself on New Years Eve?

The family later realize that in order to help Majorie, they have no choice but to allow a TV show to film Majorie’s possession, in order to possibly save her soul from the demon and earn money to keep the family afloat.

This turns out to be a really bad idea.

The exorcism goes completely wrong.

Majorie convinces her family, the priests, and the camera crew that Merry must witness her exorcism, so that everything will go smoothly. The group has no choice but to allow Merry to be a part of the exorcism, and everything appears to be going well…until Majorie suddenly snaps.

We get a fantastic gore sequence that made me feel a little sick, and Merry runs out of the room having a breakdown. Majorie follows her little sister, and ends up injuring herself on purpose.

It’s during this part of the novel that Merry decides to stop here with the interview. She then waits to tell Rachel the real story of what happened after the exorcism.

It was one of the most tragic sequences I have read in a horror novel….

Merry is tricked into murdering her entire family.

After Majorie’s exorcism goes wrong, the family appears to be in a state of depression.

Merry is trying to adjust from what she went through with Majorie’s possession, Majorie is trying to heal but is still under the demon’s control, the mother is drinking and smoking, and the father has lost his mind after everything they went through.

Majorie convinces Merry that their father was the one that was possessed the whole time, and there is a way to put a stop to this secret monster. Majorie tells Merry that he has gathered poison to kill everyone, and Merry must pour the poison inside of the tomato sauce for their spaghetti dinner.

Merry never liked red sauce throughout the book whenever they had spaghetti for dinner, so she is the only one who doesn’t ingest the poison. Merry’s entire family instantly dies, and she ends up stuck with the bodies for three days straight due to shock.

Her aunt is the person who raises her, taking her away from the deceased bodies of her family.

Rachel freaks out with this information, but believes that Merry is confused, and doesn’t actually know what really happened that night.

The book ends with Merry mentioning over and over that the coffee shop they are in feels really cold, resembling Majorie when she was cold during the exorcism.

It’s a powerful ending, that left me with one major question:

Was Majorie possessed? Or is it up to the reader to figure that out?

It really made me wonder if Majorie was actually possessed.

I love how the author left it to the reader to determine what really happened with this innocent family.

There are multiple theories I read online that horror fans believed was the main outcome:

Majorie was possessed.

This theory is what I think the author wants us to believe.

2. Majorie was suffering from mental illness.

This theory makes so much sense, because the parents were both going through something severe throughout the entire book, so maybe she was born with the same illness from either of her parents.

3. Someone else was possessed.

I really love this theory. Fans believe that either the dad or Merry was possessed the whole time.

I think that Majorie knew that someone was possessed, and through her crazy antics, she was desperate to find out who was possessed. She claimed that the dad was the possessed one the whole time, so who really knows?

Merry also could have possessed, and she didn’t want to accept it. I think that she manipulated Merry into murdering the family, to escape from the demon that was hiding within the body of her little sister.

This theory is extremely disturbing and messed up, but this is the one that I believe really happened. That ending left me feeling kind of creeped out. How did Merry feel that same cold her sister experienced?

Unless…Merry was the one who was possessed the whole time.

That is heavy and sad.

Whatever which theory the readers prefer, the outcome is always the same. It’s a tragic story about a family who goes into a descent of madness, and the execution of this tale is pure brutality.

I can’t believe I finished this book in one day…

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn