Nonfiction can go a bunch of different ways, and this book was done well but not for me. The author does an approachable and thorough job of investigating differing opinions, research, and angles to the topic of life after death, yet I wanted a lot more of the detail and human level. Even when she interviews someone firsthand, it's generally brief and with a professional level of distance. Only in her own narration do her other thoughts come out (more on that in a moment). It's not fair to say it's too surface-level on a topic, because that's not true... More accurately, she touches on each topic from such a data-informed lens that I found myself wanting more of the basic "what do most regular people think?" analysis. For my preferences, it never fully hooked me, and I got bored at times. It's also possible that this topic doesn't interest me as much as I originally assumed, though I did enjoy the discussion of near-death experiences, India's strong views on reincarnation in children, and the history of paranormal mediums.

Who is Mary Roach? Why does she have such an interest in these topics and in this way? From this book alone, I couldn't figure her out exactly. She's clearly smart, curious, and very funny, but I never understood on what authority I should take her observations. Also, the irreverent humor worked most of the time, but it did feel icky (at the beginning especially) when it ventured closer to one-sided teasing. Again, I'm sure this comes down to personal preference.

All considered, I think this book is pretty good and definitely does what it tries to do. I only wish I got more human experience out of it besides the very last line of the book.

Strong content warnings for suicide, animal abuse (graphic & frequent), medical content, and some gross body stuff.