Spook by Mary Roach

I almost quit halfway through Spook by Mary Roach. It’s not that it isn’t an interesting and well-written book. It’s just that it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be about. I thought it would be full of real-life ghost stories, of unexplained eerie happenings and how scientists approach studying them. Instead, most of the book was concerned with the history of the search for the afterlife. And while this should be interesting too, I’m just not really a history person.

Roach’s style is important to consider as well, because her tongue-in-cheek personality comes through very strongly. Either you like it or you don’t, and, well, maybe I didn’t.

That said, I kept going and the second half of the book was much better. I guess I got used to Roach’s tone, and her stories and experiences were more contemporary and relevant to my interests. So in the end, I enjoyed the book, though I didn’t love it.

The really funny thing was that in Arthur & George, which I read right afterward, Arthur joins the London Psychical Society, and gets very involved in the spiritualism so popular in the early 20th century. Several characters appeared in both books, and luckily, I was familiar with the movement, with the way mediums and séances were handled, and I knew exactly was ectoplasm was (or wasn’t). Talk about coincidences!

Spook by Mary Roach


Cherry Blossoms


Entrace Gate to Meiji Shrine Park, Tokyo


Osaka Castle

Tags: ghosts psychics Arthur Conan DoyleJapanMary Roach