A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

I've been selecting psychological thrillers a lot lately, and this one didn't disappoint.  This was an interesting read.  A story of a young woman recalling the horrific events that led up to the deaths of her entire family when she was just eight years old juxtaposed with some films of the horror genre added for comparison.  It's spine-tingling and extremely visual.  Written from the point of view of the main character, it was easy to drop myself into the events and imagine that I was the storyteller.  The family's characters and most of the supporting characters were well designed, and the twist ending caught me completely off-guard.  It was a quick read, and difficult to put down.

The only criticism I have is that although the author did a spectacular job crafting a creepy story with strong characters both easy to like and dislike, two were missing some depth.  The first was the character of the writer/journalist.  I would have liked to know more about who she is and how she came to take on this project.  She seems to be in the story simply to allow the main character to narrate her story and not much else.  More depth to this character would have made the twisty ending even more difficult to see coming.

The second character that seemed either unnecessary or underdeveloped was that of the blogger.  Her story seemed a rich part of this creepy tapestry, only then to be left in the dust and incomplete.  I think there could have been more development here, too, again adding more "slight of hand" distraction away from the ending.

I enjoyed this book, one that I actually listened to as an audiobook.  The narrator for the project was easy to listen to and added just enough variation to her voice to allow us to experience all of the characters individually.  There is absolutely no concern about this one putting you to sleep on long drives - it accomplished the exact opposite effect!

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