Reviewed by Christy H.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder with symptoms that may
include hearing voices, persecutory delusions, as well as thought and movement
disorders just to name a few. Onset symptoms usually occur between the ages of
16 and 30 with women on average showing signs around the age of 25. Marjorie’s
symptoms begin at the age of 14. Because we the readers see events through the
eyes of Marjorie’s eight year old sister Meredith we don’t get all the details
of what is happening. What we do know is that something’s very wrong with Marjorie, and all the trips to the doctor and the
medicine she’s taking isn’t helping.
The family is already under quite a bit of strain when
the novel opens. (Aren’t they always?) John, the girls’ father, has lost his
job. Finding new work has been difficult and taken such a toll on his psyche
that he’s turned to religion for guidance and peace – a fact that greatly
annoys his wife Sarah and baffles his children. But with Marjorie’s illness
getting worse and no sign of relief in sight, even Sarah reluctantly agrees to
involve the church and, eventually, an exorcism. In a series of events unknown
to us, because they are unknown to Meredith, the church somehow gets a
production crew involved which uses the story to create a reality show called The Possession. The show is enough of a
hit to inspire blog posts about its run years into the future – which we are
occasionally privy to.
Early
on in this book Merry, as her family calls her, refers to her big sister as “my
Marjorie”, and I was immediately called to mind of the Blackwood sisters in
Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It sounded like
something either one of them would say. I then noticed the back cover had
reviews with so many comparisons to Jackson (mostly Jackson meets fill in the
blank with Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, or Stanley Kubrick). As I read
on I did notice quite a bit of similarities: close sister relationships, broken
families, slow building tension, large Gothic houses, and even similar
nicknames for the youngest daughters.
I
loved this book. I loved the foreboding atmosphere, and the unsettling imagery.
I loved sweet, eight year old Merry who tried so hard to be a good sister and
daughter. She made me wish I could hug her and make her feel okay again.
Tremblay wrote her wonderfully; she acted and spoke like a real child. I loved how pieces of important information
were slowly revealed, some so casually I had to re-read them just to make sure
it said what I thought it did. I loved how it was the perfect book to read
during autumn. Luckily my house stays cold so it was easy to imagine crisp air
outside and changing leaves while bundled in a blanket – even in unfortunate 90
degree weather. I am planning on purchasing this book for my collection because
I can definitely see many re-reads in the future.
(sidenote: I have discovered
Tremblay has written a short story titled We Will Never Live in the Castle
which I love already and will have to hunt down.)
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