A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends domestic drama, psychological suspense, and a touch of modern horror, reminiscent of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In, and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later a best-selling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long-ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface - and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

Listening Length

8 hours and 49 minutes
Author

Paul Tremblay
Narrator

Joy Osmanski
Audible release date

June 2, 2015
Language

English
Publisher

HarperAudio
ASIN

B00V3WSDDU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 49 minutes
Author	Paul Tremblay
Narrator	Joy Osmanski
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	June 02, 2015
Publisher	HarperAudio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00V3WSDDU
Best Sellers Rank	#6,655 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #100 in Psychological Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #273 in Psychological Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #289 in Horror Fiction

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5 star		49%
4 star		28%
3 star		14%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Mike Reynolds

Scariest Book I Have Read in a Long Time

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2021

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I've read some very weird and poor reviews of this book on Amazon, which is why it has taken me this long to read it. I'm very glad that I finally did. But, DANG this was one of the more uncomfortable and scary books that I have read in a long time.

First things first, it is extremely well written. Tremblay writes this from the perspective of the younger sister of the 'possessed' girl. But he shifts between her memories, her interview with a biographer, and her blog posts written 15 years later under a pen-name. The changing perspective causes the reader to question whether this is a 'demonic possession' or just a family falling apart at the seams.

This book is a harrowing look at a family searching for answers to their problems of unemployment, marital problems, mental illness, and teenage rebellion. Dad looks for answers in the catholic church where he conveniently is able to blame his problems on powerful outside sources out of his control. The hope is that priests can do an exorcism ritual and quickly solve all of their problems.

The book has the reader questioning whether this was a "demonic possession" or if that is simply an easy excuse and solution to deal with mental illness. The trauma caused by religion in this story rings true.

In fact, the reason why this book was so powerfully upsetting to me is that as a father and someone who has witnessed and experienced religious trauma; everything that happens in this book is actually plausible.

It's a great read, but be ready, if you have experienced religious trauma or are upset by a horror story that can and does happen; there are a lot of triggers in this book.

7 people found this helpful

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Eve's Folly

Pretty much ripped my guts out.

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2018

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Seriously. I bawled for 10 solid minutes. Because this is not a horror novel, it is family drama. Of the most horrific kind. This is my second novel by this author and I'm about to nail-bite 'til I can get a third. Because apparently I'm off my damn rocker. Really though, this author's work makes fine reading for anyone who's not a parent of a child, a child of a parent, or a sibling of a brother or sister. Immaculate Conception single children, maybe. But then the religious connotations will get you. You know that dream you have where a family member is posessed, so you kill them? Or they kill you? And all is equal parts heartbreak and horror? Get ready to live that nightmare for a few hundred pages, then come crawling back for more so you can try to prove to yourself that you're past it. But you're not. You never will be.

21 people found this helpful

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Elle G.

:: 4 pretty Little Stars ::

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2017

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Halloween is right around the corner and in spirit of the holiday I want to read some of the horror books I have been neglecting for years now. This book was at the top of my list. And on sale. Coincidence? I think so! I am so glad I read this one. It's creepy, bizarre, and mind boggling. The author leaves many questions in readers minds throughout the story and even at the end. Readers interpretation of the events is key in this novel, so I suggest keeping a very open mind when reading it- you'll enjoy it more if you do.

With that being said, this book is much more than I was expecting. Having thought I was just going to get a good scare was quickly replaced by the reality that this isn't what the book is about. Sure, there are scary moments, times when readers skin will crawl, and times when I felt as if I was going just as mad as some of the characters. But it is also deeply unsettling in a realistic way as it skillfully portrays mental illness and its effects on the family. Additionally, it depicts a family’s decent in a societal way and the effects it also has. Put all this together and you get a nearly brilliant novel that will chill you to the core.

I don’t want to say much more about the plot because the books summary does a nice job in its description but also because I think that to fully grasp what is happening in the story that you need to read it on your own without spoilers. I will say this though, there is a lot going on in this novel. Schizophrenia, depression, paranoia, depression, and susceptibility are integral parts of the novel. So are possession, demons, and exorcism. This book will make you nervous. It may make you look over your shoulder when you enter a dark room. And it will scare the crap out of you. Should you read it? I would recommend it...

64 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Jess Pagan

Crawled Under My Skin

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2017

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Nothing rattles me anymore. Horror books are predictabled and disappointing. Horror films are downright embarrassing nowadays. <b>But this book got under my skin.</b>

This is not another possession/exorcism books, it questions everything and leaves the door open for you to make up your own mind. Regardless if Marjorie, the 14-year-old girl suffering from 'demonic' episodes, is possessed by evil or taken hostage by schizophrenia, her relationship with her little sister Merry, an 8-year-old girl full of humour and wisdom that only children have, will break your heart. She looks up to her older sister, craves her attention and their conversations are so relatable if you grew up with siblings. What happens to Marjorie seems unjust and the conclusion is wicked.

But this isn't some heartbreaking family drama. This is a horror novel and it the way that it crawls into mind and lets your imagination run wild is terrifying. I literally lost a night of sleep because of the images in my head (I have a little sister who mysteriously turned up in my bedroom in the middle of the night about ten years ago. She stood staring into my middle sister's face who was fast asleep. She claimed she had no knowledge of it and she's never sleepwalked and the bedroom door was shut - who shuts a door behind them when they're sleepwalking? - and this book sort of reignited that memory and I had to wait til the sun came up to be able to shut my eyes) from this book.

Nothing is exaggerated or overdone, and perhaps that is why this is so scary. Because it could be real. Everything the family does (including filming the exorcism) is kind of understandable, they are on the brink of complete desperation, complete falling-apart desperation, and you can feel the tension strung tight all the way through.

Although this is a plot that has been done over and over (and it makes mention of this in the book, as well as questioning how everything that's done or said runs parallel with popular horror films), it is wholly authentic and original with how it handles it. It doesn't portray Marjorie as a monster or a deranged lunatic, just a sick teenager struggling with how to cope with her detoriating mental issues as well as her turbulent life in general being at that age. It's mercy that the book is narrated from her little sister's 8-year-old eyes and that's what makes the ending so heart wrenching. Maybe I related it too much to my own sisters and us growing up, but the ending was a shocker to me and I was a distraught by it. I'm very impressed (after reading the first chapter of two horror novels before it, I wasn't expecting to get much further) and I recommend that everybody gives this a read.

27 people found this helpful

Kat Davis

Disappointend

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2019

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2.5 really. I can't seem to find a book that gets inside my head, makes me think and blows me away. I had high hopes for this one, but alas, it was mediocre at best.

I hated the narrators. If it wasn't an annoying 8 year old, then it was an obnoxious OTT blogger (I'll not spoil), or the grown up 8 year old being interviewed by a writer through the most unnatural sounding dialogue.

Lots of things happened in the book. There was the slow spiral of a girl into mental illness/possession, complete with swearing, rude comments, masturbation, green vomit, weird voices, peeing, pooping, possible levitation, injury, and death. There were parents tearing their hair out and turning to god for help. There was a camera crew that didn't seem terribly bothered by all the horrific goings on.

I admit I speed read a lot of the blogger chapters because they were boring; sort of a recap of the events of the previous chapters with some interpretation of whether the events could have been faked or comparing them to movies and books about possession. The voice was typical 'read my blog now because it is great...look at all the great stuff I've got for you!!!!'.

There was supposedly a twist at the end, but it wasn't really a twist because there were so many hints and ways of interpreting the possession scenes that made the reader expect it.

To be fair, if I had never read a book or watched a movie about possession, or seen documentaries or those 'Most Haunted' things, then I would probably have been creeped out. But since I am an avid horror fan, I've been exposed to just about everything. That made this book very ho hum for me.

My recommendation is to read it if you are just starting out on your horror journey, but if you are an old hand, you will most likely be disappointed.

7 people found this helpful

BewBob

Meta story with interesting extras

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2019

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Paul Tremblay can write: you don’t get to be juror on the Shirley Jackson awards without having some sort of pedigree.
Stephen King says this book is a great read for book clubs and has a lot to unpack. King’s book recommendations can be taken with a pinch of salt in my experience though, so I read this with interest: it’s been a long time since I read a horror story which really affected me and I was hoping for good things. Ultimately I enjoyed the book well enough, but the enjoyment tended to come from the recognition of other works referenced in it: overtly or otherwise.
At the simplest level it’s a story of a struggling family and the filming of the elder sister’s possible possession and the film crew who make a reality show of her exorcism. It’s told from the point of view of the girl’s younger sister as she recounts the story to a non fiction writer keen to document the tale Year’s later, intercut with a blogger recounting the tv series.
There’s nothing new in the actual events: the book goes out of its way to draw comparisons to cultural references of a similar story: at one point listing all the similar themed works on the protagonist’s dvd shelves. Even the possible ‘reality’ element of the tale is well worn through the many mockumentary movies out there from Blair Witch onwards.
There is a wrinkle towards the end (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a twist), which calls into question what we’ve read, without really answering the underlying ‘why’.
Was the book scary? No. Not at all. Through using the blogger description device, the line between the younger sister’s recount of events and the tv series description blur into a feeling of sameness (there is a reason for this, but you’ll see that when you read it). The most interesting aspect of the book is the relationship between the sisters and their love- although this too becomes blurred and motivations and actions become unclear.
Ultimately reading as a straight story, there’s too much we’ve seen too many times before, so that if we are familiar with the genre, we spend most of our time drawing comparisons (The Exorcist being the most obvious answer, and the book both compares and tries to distance itself from that work through repeated reference- but at no time does it match that book’s ‘horror’.) rather than feeling we’re getting anything original.
The secondary characters in the book - from parents to film crew are weak: both as characters and in terms of motives, but the author writes the main characters well: if somewhat schizophrenically (no pun intended given the older sister’s potential mental issues) in terms of the actions and feelings given their ages.
If there is any doubt about the author’s intentions it is dispelled by the book’s last 10% (I read the book on kindle, and thought it was getting interesting with 10% left to read, only to find that was it and the story ended), which provides, as the author puts it ‘liner Notes/ dvd extras’ where he outlines most of the film and book references he was overtly or subtly using throughout the story. There’s also an essay on horror and culture which was an interesting read, and questions suitable for a book club.
Overall? An interesting enough read, but not throwing anything new out there, and the fact it has been optioned as a film project is neither surprising nor of any real interest: it’s all too easy to see how that will turn out, and any meta elements of the text will, I think, just become the cliched story it is trying to highlight in the book.

7 people found this helpful

Emily N

though I did enjoy it by the end I think

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2017

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I wasn't sure what to make of this book, though I did enjoy it by the end I think. It was a rather disturbing/heartbreaking story, to be honest, but Paul Tremblay has a phenomenal talent for painting a scene and use of imagery. For some reason, I kept forgetting this story was set in modern day - a lot of it seemed to have an older feel, maybe because it was composed of a series of flashbacks? - so the reference to characters using their mobile phones and other modern references did keep throwing me a bit. Still, it was an enjoyable book, on the whole, and definitely not a disappointment to read; the author kept you on your toes, managing to twist your beliefs about the strange goings on so what you believed to be true initially was made to seem less and less likely, which helped the story to get into your head and stay there.

7 people found this helpful

Stephen King found this scary?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 13, 2018

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I was excited to read this when I saw that Stephen King had commented on how scary it was, but ended up very disappointed and annoyed that I'd been so gullible. It has some potential, and the characters were easily relatable at first, but the main kid ended up being really irritating. There was also a point where there were nothing but references to existing horror films, and I didn't get what that had to do with that plot so I was bored rigid. There was a lot of build up for no reward. I won't be reading any more books by this author.

14 people found this helpful

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