Content Warning: The Chapter Summaries & Analyses contain references to murder, death by suicide, mental health conditions, alcohol addiction, and mentions of sexual abuse, infanticide, anti-gay slurs, and self-harm, which feature in the novel. 

A Head Full of Ghosts opens as 23-year-old narrator Meredith “Merry” Barrett / “Karen Brissette” and nonfiction author Rachel Neville arrive at Merry’s vacant childhood home, the setting of Rachel’s upcoming book. Rachel suggests that returning to the house must be difficult for Merry, which Merry claims is true. However, Merry is forthcoming and blasé throughout their conversation, joking and conceding that she is quite comfortable being back.

Merry prattles on. She asks Rachel if Rachel purchased the house, suggesting that Rachel could exploit the location by turning it into a “ghoulish” attraction with a gift shop, and that she, Merry, could even be involved with the staging and marketing. Merry is being paid by Rachel’s publisher in exchange for her participation in the research process for the book, named as a creative consultant. Rachel clarifies that she did not purchase the house. Before she begins telling her story, Merry claims that it is really her sister Marjorie’s story, but Merry herself remains the focal point of her