4 Stars for A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

"It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!" "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Paul Tremblay begins his Exorcist/Linda Blair spookfest novel, A Head Full of Ghosts with this quote. A Head Full of Ghosts is not for the light-hearted, but its not just for the folks who want to see "Blood and gore and guts and veins in their teeth!" Some of that is there, but Tremblay's story digs deeper asking the reader to examine the psychological walls of sanity holding us inside a kind-of yellow wallpaper probing at the normalcy of all the characters in the story. This story examines other themes as well, such as feminism, good and evil and how they can often fade the thick black lines separating them by our own fears. 

Tremblay does a phenomenal job with plot, twisting and turning the horror of what Marjorie, the possessed, will do next. The ending is not what you will expect and it further drowns you in the same questions you've asked all along. However, my questions felt answered after I decided who Marjorie, and Merry, the younger sister played in Gilman's yellow wallpaper. Because, yes, Head Full of Ghosts felt like it was plastered on every page with evil yellow wallpaper. And, both girls are trapped, either in the room or in the wallpaper. One will be free and the other will forever be locked inside her own mind. It is an interesting read, scary, yes but in a way that is based on the real demons located in us all and we can only pray we don't succumb to them. I recommend it. 

Five Stars for The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

The Orphan Master’s Son came highly recommended by someone who is considered a friend.
Thank you. Please recommend more!

With that said, I dive into my review with gusto even though the water I dive into is dark and dangerous with glimmers of light frosting the surface. The Orphan Master’s Son was much like this…

“The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

You are in the protagonist, Jun Do's head a lot, but you are also outside of it covered in darkness and hoping for the propaganda of the light.  Is it propaganda and is as false, how dark? - well you’ll have to read the book to find out. It is a spoiler to tell you what happens to Jun Do/John Doe, but it is a fate you root for simply because he belongs to all of our human psyche and dreams.

There is a story here, and a plot line that weaves its way through a maybe orphan boy’s world but that is only the baseline. This is so much deeper - playing with nasty polarities of communism and capitalism, truth and lies, and my favorite, freedom and confinement defining the last in a spectrum of definitions. This is why The Orphan Master’s Son easily transcends to great novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Despite the many alluring themes, it was freedom and love that captured my interest, my heart. And in the end, it is love and its desire to be free that seals the deal and makes me buy into this book.

“They’re about a woman whose beauty is like a rare flower. There is a man who has a great love for her, a love he’s been saving up for his entire life, and it doesn’t matter that he must make a great journey to her, and it doesn’t matter if their time together is brief, that afterward he might lose her, for she is the flower of his heart and nothing will keep him from her.”
― Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son

Okay, so this is Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love,” Capitalism and Communism Edvard Munch screaming freedom. I dig it. It is my (NOT Dear Leader or Big Brother’s) memory hole but it is my place where love cannot be denied and a hero can be found. I highly recommend it to those willing to travel a darker path. It is not for the light of heart.