A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (2015) is a horror novel published by William Morrow. It is the fifth of Tremblay’s 10 novels, and was optioned in 2016 by Focus Features for screen adaptation. His seventh novel, The Cabin at the End of the World (2018), winner of the Bram Stoker and Locus Awards, was also adapted for the screen; it was released in 2023 as the M. Night Shyamalan film Knock at the Cabin. Tremblay received another Bram Stoker award for his novel Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (2016) but considers one of his highest compliments to have come from Stephen King, who tweeted that A Head Full of Ghosts “scared the living hell out of me” (Breznican, Anthony. “Stephen King at 70: A Head Full of Ghosts Author Paul Tremblay on Empathy in Horror.” Ew.com). Tremblay attributes the significant increase in attention and readership of his novel to this praise.

Tremblay is a native and resident of Massachusetts, where most of his fiction is set, and has a master’s degree in mathematics. He is a lifelong horror fan, and has served as a member of the jury that selects the winners of the Shirley Jackson Prize since the award’s inception in 2007.