Match BookSpook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Mary Roach
2005 · 311 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife is narrative nonfiction (popular science, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an international setting, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are faith, identity and nature. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 311 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something funny
- you want an escape
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy, dark or tense
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- funny
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- light and escapist
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- faith, identity, nature
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- I Was Told There'd Be Cake: EssaysSloane CrosleyShares: narrative nonfiction, funny mood, light and escapist tone, moderate pace
- My Family and Other AnimalsGerald DurrellShares: narrative nonfiction, funny mood, light and escapist tone, moderate pace
- The Descent of ManGrayson PerryShares: narrative nonfiction, funny mood, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They DoClotaire RapailleShares: narrative nonfiction, funny mood, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really AreSeth Stephens-DavidowitzShares: narrative nonfiction, popular science, moderate pace, set in international
- Imaginary JesusMatt MikalatosShares: narrative nonfiction, funny mood, moderate pace, contemporary setting
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