Bram Stoker Award 2015. World Fantasy Award nominee 2016.
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 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 TV 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 bestselling 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.
