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curiosomonstero's review
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
Very informative but lacks an overall structure, interesting but hard to read
seedwa's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
The content of the book was enjoyable and the author took a stance I appreciated, “Discussion has drifted away - thank goodness - from efforts to prove or disprove the existence of ghosts. That idea belongs to 1880s London. In a basic sense, ghosts exist because people constantly report that they see them.”
That being said, the structure was pretty disorganised and it jumped around a lot in a way that was muddling.
That being said, the structure was pretty disorganised and it jumped around a lot in a way that was muddling.
zerobot's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
One of the best books about haunting history I've read - takes a reasonable stance and mostly lets the stories speak for themselves, while weaving in interesting historical figures and info as needed.
pyreghost's review
challenging
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
if you are at all like me (in possession of an insatiable special interest in ghosts, and ghost hunting, and its history) then this book is more or less everything it says on the tin: an utter must-read. a book of healthy skepticism written by a genuine and passionate believer, a man whose own immense interest in ghosts had him following around his predecessors at the age of 14 (dude, if that could have been me, me too). what i would give to meet him and just ask him questions. thank you mr. roger clarke for making this passion project of a book that i otherwise would have wanted to will into existence myself.
this book won’t change your mind on any matter of ghost belief, but i do not believe it tries to, or claims to try to. it is a record of history wherein our author readily recognises our own predisposed biases to finding our own conclusions. this is a gathering of information on a topic that is historically shunned from being taken seriously enough for such a compendium. for these reasons, i found this read to be so very valuable!
this book won’t change your mind on any matter of ghost belief, but i do not believe it tries to, or claims to try to. it is a record of history wherein our author readily recognises our own predisposed biases to finding our own conclusions. this is a gathering of information on a topic that is historically shunned from being taken seriously enough for such a compendium. for these reasons, i found this read to be so very valuable!
Content Warnings
Minor: War and Sexual content
jcampbell's review
dark
fast-paced
1.0
book feels very scattered, there is a broadly chronological structure but there is limited movement from one chapter to the next. It is just a selection of short pithy chapter with limited appropriate introductions.
mamieslevin's review
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
3.0
Interesting read! I wish that it had a stronger thesis—it mostly felt like a compendium of critically retold ghost stories/beliefs of England than a strong argument about exactly what they all mean together. I really liked the conclusion and wanted the author to dig in more about the gender and class differences in ghost beliefs.