-
“Roach is a
wonderfully vivid writer and most fun when she is exploring the world of the
modern soul-searchers…Roach has a keen eye for the perfect detail, an ear for
the zinging quotation, and a finely tuned sense of the preposterous…A celebration of the wide,
occasionally crazy spectrum of human pursuit.”
— New York Times Book Review
-
“Science writing
doesn’t get funnier or more human than this.”
— Detroit Free Press
-
“Spook is nothing if not amusing. Roach heads into a mire of ghostly
and laboratory episodes with robust humor.”
— Houston Chronicle
-
“Investigative
reporting has no lighter, more irreverent spirit than Mary Roach…What lets Spook rise above the dry survey of
(mostly inconclusive) scientific investigations it could have been is Mary
Roach—her lively and distinctive style, or perhaps more accurately put, her
attitude…Roach is funny, fair-minded, impartial, and endlessly curious…Spook
is enormous fun.”
— Pittsburgh Union-Tribune
-
“Funny, inquisitive,
and uncowed by experts, [Roach is] the general reader’s ideal emissary to the
arcana of serious science…Roach’s writing has what science has so far failed to
find: a divine spark.”
— Newsweek
-
“Roach is a
self-described skeptic, but one with an open mind, a sense of adventure, and a
ready quip. All of this makes her an amiable and entertaining guide as she
traverses several continents to look for scientific proof for the great beyond.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
-
“A sharp-eyed
supernatural history.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine
-
“As fascinating and thorough
as her research may be, the greater tale lies in the people: the mediums, the
mystics, the I-want-to-believers, the scientists, pseudo and for-real. Roach
has a genius for portraiture, and she can bring the oddest people to hilarious
life without a hint of condescension…Her oddball, incandescent personality radiates
from her prose.”
— San Diego Union-Tribune
-
“First, there’s her
wit and stylistic brio. From the clever dedication…to her gift for terse
summation…to her genuine humility…Roach is a clear and versatile writer. She
has a sharp eye for detail that demonstrates her traditional journalistic
skills…but she delivers her findings in ultra-contemporary tones…She has a huge
heart, a strong sense of empathy for the oddball, and she’s willing to go to
great lengths to find and report stories from the hinterlands of understanding.”
— Chicago Tribune
-
“Roach brings to Spook a lightness and sense of humor
that happily, smooth the morbid edges of the proceedings she describes…The most
refreshing thing about Spook is that
Roach herself is a skeptic, guiding a skeptic’s tour…What evidence she does
come across, therefore, becomes all the more compelling.”
— Salon
-
“Both a comic and
serious investigation of the history of séances, mediums, spirits, and
discarnate voices…All of a sudden, with Spook,
the field of the paranormal is bust-a-gut funny…Spook is a comic romp through a mix of history and the current
practices of a particular culture.”
— Sunday Oregonian
-
“Funny and smart…Since
she’s a scientist at heart, she also lasers through the smoke and mirrors.”
— People
-
“Alas, she doesn’t
find the answers. But Roach is such a smart and breezy companion that it’s
enough to watch her realize that in the end she might not need them.”
— Entertainment Weekly
-
“For all Roach’s
skeptical and often hilarious accounts, she is an eager volunteer and ready to
accept evidence if evidence there be…Throughout, she is critical and witty
[and] truly deft handling of the (mostly) daft.”
— Kirkus Reviews
-
“Roach is an original
who can enliven any subject with wit, keen reporting, and a sly intelligence.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
-
“Roach is dogged in
her approach…Gripping…Roach’s witty asides liven up an already interesting and
unusual read.”
— Booklist