A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay

Summary: 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.

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.

Stephen King recommended this book on his twitter and as with almost all of his recommendations, this one didn't disappoint me, it was one of the most thought provoking novels I have read lately.

This book plays with the reader's mind from the start, making you doubt about everything: is Marjorie really possessed or is she mentally ill? is the reality show a fraud? what really happened the night of the exorcism?
All of this is reinforced by the fact that the narrator is unreliable, we get to know what happened from the testimony of a girl who was only eight years old when everything happened so it can be a little misleading. 
Another aspect that adds to the ambiguity of this story is that each section of the book starts with a blog post from Karen, a self proclaimed "expert in all-things horror and pop culture" blogger, who analyses each chapter of the reality show trying to figure out if it's truly a televised exorcism or a fraud. I found these fragments to be really good because it adds another point of view and tries to explain everything comparing the reality show to other exorcism movies, on this posts Tremblay displays a wide knowledge of horror culture that really amazed me.

I think that this is more a psychological thriller with horror elements instead a pure horror novel. This doesn't means that it hasn't some nasty scenes, there are some really creepy moments that are a great homage to other horror classics and some disturbing fragments such as this:

"The flooding black river of blood will be the only thing to ever pour out of your mouth again. No more words. No one will listen to you. That's the worst part, Merry. You will not be able to speak ever again, which means you will never be able to tell anyone about what will happen next to you and everyone else in this house. All the awful, terrible, unspeakable shit that will happen to you, and it will happen to you, and to everyone else...I know. I've heart about it and I've seen it. No one escapes."

The ending was my favourite part of this book, it caught me by surprise because I thought everything was clear; the ending turned upside down all my assumptions and that was amazing. This is the kind of endings that I love on psychological-esque books and the way Tremblay pulled it off was brilliant.

Rating 9/10: Despite some minor inconveniences that I didn't like this was a terrific book that I totally recommend if your'e into books that plays with your head. The ambiguous ending will make you elaborate theories about what happened and I found it amazing. I wouldn't call it an open ending but it left enough room for the reader to think what he wants about some loose ends. 

Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1) - Robing Hobb

Summary: In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin

The first book in the Farseer trilogy was a pleasant surprise for me because before reading it (or listening in this case) I thought it was just another young adult fantasy book that I always avoid, but I saw many great reviews about Hobb's writing and decided to try the audiobook.

While I thought it wasn't a mind blowing fantasy book, I can tell that the praises for Hobb's writing are well deserved. The world of the Six Duchies was awesome, seemingly simple at first but intriguing enough to keep me reading and trying to know more about it. 

What I enjoyed the most was the protagonist. Fitz was a great character and since this is a sort of coming of age story of a bastard trained to be used as a political tool by his king I connected with him immediately and "suffered" with him all the ordeals he goes through while growing up.
The other characters were pretty awesome too, we get to know them better through Fitz point of view and even though you find the typical secondary characters such as the fatherly figure, the bad guy, the grumpy instructor, etc. I didn't find them annoying or unoriginal at all.

On the other hand I have to say that this book reads like a long introduction: there is a lot of set up, world building and character development, so be prepared for it.

I thought that the way Hobb introduces us into the world of the Six Duchies was fantastic because each chapter begins with a short excerpt of ancient legends or back stories for some characters, this make it easier for the reader to understand how the magic and other aspects of the Realm of the Elderlings (the world where this stories take place).

I usually love this kind of "introductory books" but in this case the ending was a bit predictable in my opinion because there weren't many significant plot twists.

My opinion about the audiobook: it was fantastic, one of the best audiobooks I have listened so far. Paul Boehmer does an awesome job portraying the different voices in a very convincing way, his narration is top notch.

The only drawback I found was that at the start of each chapter there are some texts that tell legends of the Six Duchies and he didn't pause to give me an idea that it wasn't the main text, this was a minor inconvenience during the first few chapters but stopped being a problem as I became accustomed to his narration.

Rating 6/10: Despite the negative aspects I thought it was a good (not excellent) fantasy book. The world of the Six Duchies is pretty cool and some mysteries like the Red Ship Raiders (the bad guys in this universe) left me wanting to read more about Fitz's adventures.

Pet Sematary - Stephen King

“And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.”

Summary: The road in front of Dr. Louis Creed's rural Maine home frequently claims the lives of neighborhood pets. Louis has recently moved from Chicago to Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their children and pet cat. Near their house, local children have created a cemetery for the dogs and cats killed by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. Deeper in the woods lies another graveyard, an ancient Indian burial ground whose sinister properties Louis discovers when the family cat is killed.

Pet Sematary remains as one of my favourite Stephen King's books and one of the finest horror stories I've ever read. The fact that I didn't expected much when I first read it nine years ago was important because it had some of the best plot twists I've read in a novel written by King.

That's why I recommend reading the book before watching the movie, knowing what is going to happen beforehand can ruin the shock this story causes on the reader so the less you know about the plot of this book the better.

I'll only say that this is a book about death in all its aspects and how it can influence on people, many characters deals and face it in different ways.
It also resembles in a certain way King's conception about death and destiny, both concepts explored in detail in The Dark Tower series.

This is a book that King himself has said to be his most terrifying story, he had a hard time finishing this book because it was inspired in some events that happened to his family while they were living in a house similar to the one the Creeds live. As I said before this was a book that really shocked me because of its brutality and the dark tone setted by King, it also deals with one of my worst fears.

As for the characters I have to say that they were great. It always surprise me how real Stephen King's character feel, he provides them with complicated and deep backgrounds that are very believable and doesn't feel artificial at all. The story is told by a narrator that focuses on doctor Creed mostly, but we get some chapters told from the point of view of other family members too.
Also it uses a technique that it's implemented by King in many of his books which consists in anticipating a shocking event at the start of a chapter. I find this to be excellent because even though the reader knows beforehand what is going to happen the event has the same shocking effect because of the ominous tone that the author sets when the chapter starts, giving the feeling of impending doom to the reader.

I think that the ending is one of Stephen King's finest, it's brutal and in tone with the dark atmosphere of the whole book. 

Rating 10+: In my opinion it's one of King's best horror books that isn't usually mentioned next to his most known works such as Misery, The Shinning, IT or Salem's Lot. Again, I'll say that the less you know about the plot the better because this book has one of the most terrific plot twists written by King.

The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) - Brandon Sanderson

“Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days...What is belief - what is faith - if you don't continue in it after failure?... Anyone can believe in someone, or something that always succeeds...But failure...ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value. Sometimes we just have to wait long enough... then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing...There's always another secret.”

The first instalment in the Mistborn trilogy was great. Sanderson does a great job with the worldbuilding and setting the rules of his magic system, without being confusing or tedious.

The Final Empire takes place on a decadent world which is governed by the Lord Ruler, some kind of god emperor that has been in power for thousands of years and has annihilated every attempt of rebellion. The story begins when Kelsier, a former slave and only survivor of the terrible Pits of Hathsin, start organizing a group to overthrow the Lord Ruler.

What I enjoyed the most of this book was it's simplicity. The story is really straight forward and the lore isn't that hard to understand, in fact the world map is very small compared to other epic fantasy sagas and the action takes place in the Final Empire's capital mostly so you don't get confused by learning other locations.