I spotted this 30 Day Book Challenge on Madame Writer’s Blog and I knew I just had to give it a go.
Day One – Best Book you read last year…
Although published in 2015, I didn’t read this gem until last year. I was absolutely blown away by this take on the possession genre; Tremblay was able to write a tribute to horror while also adding a fresh twist of his own by including the reality television aspect.
“The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-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.”
Despite making me feel giddy with happiness during the nods to other horror, there were still plenty of genuinely disturbing and scary scenes.
If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for?
AbmostFiction 