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Spook
- Science Tackles the Afterlife
- Narrated by: Bernadette Quigley
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
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Spook
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Publisher's Summary
In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves' heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of "ectoplasm" in a Cambridge University archive.
What listeners say about Spook
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Pamela Kerr
- 2021-11-12
Poor narration
The narration was poor - it was like she was reading a child's book. I felt like she was mocking people when she did accents.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Fatima
- 2020-08-17
The readers accents were extremely distracting
I found the reader to be extremely obnoxious when she did accents. Especially as some “foreign” accents came off as borderline offensive.
It just took me out of the narration each time because the accents were so BAD and extremely obnoxious! Would have preferred the audio book much more if she didn’t do ridiculous accents.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- AK
- 2023-12-08
Topic
Narration was overdone which made it less pleasant to listen to … accents were offensive. better read by author
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Michael Bowles
- 2022-07-09
Entertaining content, strange performance
I like Mary Roach's approach to these subjects, which got me through this book.
The narrator has a good voice and reads well, but when quoting people, her impressions are overdone to the point of clownishness. Where she chooses to mimic accents, she even crosses the line into offensiveness.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- marts
- 2020-07-12
Annoying Narration
I'm a couple of hours in and returning it although I'm curious about the rest. The narrator puts on a mocking accent whenever quoting a doctor in India. It's annoying and offensive enough to have made it unlistenable for me. I'm surprised the publisher and author would not have exercised better judgment in having the material read in such a manner.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Simon B
- 2023-02-16
Borderline Untolerable
If it weren't for the fact that I had to finish this for a book club, I would've turned this off within the first ten minutes of narration. Her accents are idiotic and ignorant at best, overtly racist at worst. I believe the narrator is trying to come across as sarcastically funny, however the tone is so arrogant and condescending I am having a hard time separating the tone of the narration from the tone of the book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jen Costa
- 2022-11-09
Interesting Content but Unnecessary Accents
I do love Mary Roach's writing but the East Indian accents used by the narrator in this recording are really distracting and extremely unnecessary and offensive. I understand that this book was first released in 2006 so this might be an older recording that was brought to Audible, but ultimately it wasn't acceptable then and certainly isn't acceptable now. A re-record is needed.
I'm trying to get through it b/c the content is interesting but ultimately I'll probably end up skipping chapters to escape some of the narration.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- S
- 2021-08-25
Wow awful
The worst performance I’ve ever heard in my life. This narrator should be totally ashamed of herself. The imitations of Indian dialects was so unbearably cringe worthy I couldn’t finish the book. My advice - buy the physical copy.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-01-13
Narration is not ok. Audible - please re-record
I wish I could have finished this, or should not have bought this as an audio book. The content is interesting but the narrator is over-the-top, deeply snide and worst of all - puts on a fake accent in parts. This is not appropriate. Audible - I would seriously consider having this re-recorded. This narration is giving a terrible impression of the book and the author herself. It doesn't reflect well on Audible to have this included either, to be honest.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Court
- 2023-06-22
Please Re-record
I love this author, I have so many of her books, but I have zero space for more physical books. This topic matter is very interesting to me I was so excited to listen. However, her trying to mimic an Indian accent takes away from all of that. I actually ended up not making it past chapter 3 because the accent was so distracting and terrible. If I was Dr. Rawat I would be horrified by how she, basically, mocked me. I ended up deleting the download and I’ll probably just buy the book because I can’t with that narration. Please re-record this. Thanks.
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