—3— 

I was a little disappointed with Mary Roach’s Spook, considering how much I loved her previous work, titled Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.  Some parts were interesting, and it the concept was excellent.  She researched different ways that were historically employed to find out what happens after death, as well as current research being done.  And some of her ideas were very smart: talking to an expert on reincarnation, mediums who claim to contact the dead, and those with near death experiences.  However, unlike her last book, Roach cannot quite make science a large part of these studies, although the book is described as “science tackles the afterlife”.  It just doesn’t work.  The book, however, is decent, and worth the read if you liked Stiff.  But try Stiff first.  It is laugh out loud funny, without being disrespectful.  It is not gruesome or overly morbid, just funny and interesting–quite an accomplishment I think for discussing what physically happens to the body after death.  So yay for Stiff, and take it or leave it for Spook.

3/5

(Stiff: 4.5/5)