Roach, Mary - Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Despite the subtitle, Spook isn't actually a scientific debunking of various beliefs and practices surrounding the afterlife. Rather, Mary Roach undergoes a sort of journey to see what her take on things like reincarnation, near-death experiences and psychics is.

Roach is a bit of a skeptic, though I wouldn't say she's extraordinarily skeptical. But that may be because I'm a bit of a skeptic myself when it comes to these sorts of things. Mostly she finds that when it comes to the afterlife, none of the studies she witnesses or the people she talks to really convinces her of anything, although there are one or to moments in which she begins to wonder. Mostly it's just fun going around with her in the book and reading her opinions on things, particularly when she joins a school for mediums.

The chapter that I found the most interesting was the one on near-death experiences, but that may just be because I read Connie Willis' Passage, which has a good deal about NDEs in it.

Luckily, the strength of the book isn't in scientific debunking or anything of the sort. Roach just goes around and seems to have a great deal of fun poking her nose into various things, and she's got a wry narrative voice which is extremely fun to read. Spook actually ended up being much funnier than I thought it would be, despite rachelmanija telling me that it was pretty fun. Also, I'd tell people to read it if only for the irreverent but never mean-spirited commentary and footnotes!

Westerfeld, Scott - Uglies

This is the first book in a trilogy set in a world in which everyone goes through set stages of life -- Littlies, Uglies, New Pretties, Middle Pretties, and Old Pretties (I think... I forgot the last one). So basically, when you turn sixteen in this world, you undergo an operation to change you from an Ugly to a Pretty. They grind down your skin, make artificial cheekbones, etc. and the now New Pretties get to move to New Pretty Town.

Tally's been dying to get her operation, especially since her best friend got it a few months ahead of her. However, she's also befriended Shay, an Ugly who's a little different from the rest. Shay's not sure if she wants to be Pretty; instead, she talks about running away and living somehwere that isn't in the city. Soon, Tally has to decide between following her friend to a place and a lifestyle completely foreign to her, or forever giving up the chance to be Pretty.

I'm sort of caught between liking the premise of the book and feeling that it's a bit too heavy-handed; the age separations and the sameness of all the stages the people have to go through feel a lot like Lois Lowry's The Giver to me. And while there is a Big Reveal about the nature of the Pretty world halfway through the book, it's not quite as surprising or as powerful as it feels it should be, probably because I've already read The Giver. It's not to say that they're the same, but the notion is similar. Some day it would be interesting to read about a world that seems too good to be true and not have it have a dark, seedy secret.

Anyhow, I didn't like Tally or the worldbuilding quite as much as I liked the world of Peeps; I think there are probably more Big Reveals coming on later in the trilogy. Well, at least I hope so!

The one interesting bit that Westerfeld doesn't quite go into is that Tally's world is quite obviously a future Earth, in which the Rusties have destroyed themselves from using too much fossil fuels and other environmentally damanging things. I do like how it's all in the background, though I hope Westerfeld goes into more depth with the world in the later books.

Uglies also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so it's sort of hard to evaluate on its own. Want to read the next one though!

Links:
- rilina's review

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