A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts is ambiguous on purpose, hard to understand and super intelligent when you dig down far enough.

It seems to lack direction and substance until you reflect enough after completing it. A confusing book that's very effective at drawing you in from a perspective of innocence while meddling with your head at a deeper psychological level.

The confusion comes from the main narrative, told from the first-person perspective of an eight-year-old girl who innocently assumes the role of an unreliable narrator. It's vague and blurry as it grapples with real-life events and her own confused viewpoint. What she recalls can't possibly be true or accurate, but it's all you have to go on as the narrative delves deeper.

This makes the book feel a bit lightweight because everyone has continuous dysfunctional problems and yet here we are, witnessing events from the viewpoint of a confused eight-year-old girl.

It's a book you need to read twice to drill down into the logic of why people behave the way they do. Why is Dad so religiously untethered, and why is Mum so stressed out? Why does Marjorie behave so weirdly all the time? Is she really possessed? Is everyone crazy, except for our childhood narrator?

Once you know the answers it makes more sense if you're looking for something haunted yet innocent, abstract and intelligent.

It also deals with mental health issues and has direct references to The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for example, which is a really beautiful way of looking at things while also being disturbing and psychologically challenging.

Maybe the biggest problem I had with A Head Full of Ghosts is the continuous perspective from the viewpoint of a young child, but for a reason, to specifically blur the edges between reality and fantasy and add to the confusion about what's going on. It works a treat if you don't like obvious lay-it-on-a-plate horror literature!

If you like psychological horror that gets you thinking after it's finished more so than during the main story itself, this is the book for you.