Spook

Science Tackles the Afterlife

By: Mary Roach

Narrated by: Bernadette Quigley

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that - the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my laptop?"

In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves' heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of "ectoplasm" in a Cambridge University archive.

©2005 Mary Roach (P)2005 Brilliance Audio

Terrible Narration!

I really liked the content of this book and love Mary Roach but the narration was terrible and I almost didn't finish.

Amusing

Although the narrator of this book is phenomenal, and generally pleasant, she managed to make the tone of this book rather intentionally or unintentionally, patronising, and therefore amusing. I doubt the author had intended to take mockery this far. The professed content is intriguing, but execution left something to be desired. This is not a history book, but rather, a highly investigative journalistic in style. I give it three stars because although I am entertained and amused, the content and the structure definitely left something to be desired.

"Meh," indeed.

This book was mildly interesting. The narrator seemed to be making a great effort to sound "ironic" or something. That was grating at times, but for the most part this wasn't a bad book at all. Not bad, but not good either.

Also, it seemed as though the first half was devoted almost exclusively to reincarnation, which wasn't quite what I expected. Oddly enough, that was probably the best part.

I really enjoyed Bonk, though, so I'll likely give Stiff a chance still.

Mary Roach is comical and succinct.

What made the experience of listening to Spook the most enjoyable?

I listened to the book on several long drives. Each chapter had a theme and that made it easy to stop and start with each trip.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Spook?

I enjoyed hearing about some of the experiments that were performed in order to try and determine whether or not a soul exists.

Which scene was your favorite?

One of the chapters references a rumor about a husband and wife medium team that worked together. The husband always insisted to sit next to his wife during the ceremonies, apparently so that he could help with some very interesting props.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It was nice to space it out.

Funny & Clever

Enjoyed the humor very much. Thought provoking. Recommend it highly even though it seems "dark" in nature. (I am NOT a dark person by ANY stretch of the imagination but things that make you think beyond what you know it excellent mental exercise!

Never read a Mary Roach book? Don't start here!

Bernadette Quigley has a good voice, but she reads this book accentuating and exaggerating everything so much that she completely kills Mary Roach's hilarious subtle pokes. Every funny comment is read in a sort of winky-winky way, and every sarcastic remark is overblown.
Every british accent is butchered and sounds like a mockery. The lame attempts at an indian accent is borderline racist, I believe.
I generally laugh myself to tears when reading a Roach book; in the case of this one, there were no laughs so far. I have to mentally reinterpret all the words. If you never read a Mary Roach book before, please do yourself a favor don't start with this reading. Try, for example, Packing For Mars, which was a delightful listen.
As far as the book's contents, this is standard Mary Roach: scientific exploration and research to debunk subjects of mystification, with a lot of curiosities, grossness and sarcasm. I love her style; I can see why not everyone would.

Not every narrator pleases everyone.

I didn't like the mocking voices she puts on to make fun of the people we are made to laugh at in the book. Some famous names have experimented with some pretty woo woo ideas. But electricity was pretty woo woo to most people at first. I have read almost all of Mary's books and absolutely love them, can't wait for the next one. This is the one I've listened to instead of read. Right now though I think it's important to teach critical and logical thinking. I mean we got people worshipping flags for Pete's sake. They're easy to laugh at, but I think we need to teach them, like little toddlers. Using a mocking voice to make fun of them just felt like play ground bullying to me. Irritating, but I still love the content!

Great material. Terrible performance.

Great material, but the accents were distracting. I felt that they were disrespectful portrayals of real people. If it were a non-fiction book, I could live with the accents, but some very questionable choices were made by the performer and the production director. For me, these vocal caricatures devalued much of the information presented on all sides of the life-after-death argument. The book was written with humor, which I appreciated, but the performance didn't know where the joke ended (if you've seen Super Troopers, think of the character Farva). I'm curious to see if the author and the interviewees signed off on this production.

I definitely want to listen to more of Mary Roach's work, but I will run to the hills if it's the same narrator.

not her best

Mary Roach book about astronauts far surpasses this book. I struggled to finish this one though it did improve as I got further in.

Awesome book - terrible narration

Mary Roach is a great writer, if you can find it voiced by someone else I highly recommend.
Quigley goes way way over the top and is very distracting