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abbypneal's review against another edition
1.0
technically dnf, but i got close enough that im counting it. incredibly dry, boring, and the actual book does not match the title or cover blurb whatsoever.
natreviews's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
So where do I start with this book... it's really boring. Which is interesting considering it's material. I found that I would skim over paragraphs because it never captivated me as a read. It's just written in a way that was bland and didn't get my attention. The book also jumps around a lot, so I never really understood the timeline of events or what was going on. It could be because of how boring I found it, but I barely remember anything that I read, and still have no clue really who Rhine was.
gobblebook's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really fascinating look at the history of the study of supernatural phenomena at Duke University. The book describes many interesting cases of mediums, extra-sensory perception, ghosts, and other explainable phenomena, but the focus of the book is the hurdles that scientists have faced in trying to study and explain these occurrences. Horn focuses on J.B. Rhine, the founder and head of the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, and the driving force behind nearly 50 years of vigorous research. Unfortunately, Rhine never found satisfactory explanations for paranormal phenomena, and most of his work has never been accepted by the scientific community at large, despite following the scientific method very carefully. Horn discusses many possible explanations for the paranormal, which are very interesting. It is also interesting how much we still don't know about the world around us and our own capabilities.
Horn handles her information very sensitively: she isn't trying to convince her readers of anything, except to keep an open mind. You will come away from this book with more questions than answers, which I think is a strength. The book is well-researched, and the bibliography provides lots of material for extra reading.
My one complaint is that I sometimes lost track of the overall narrative about J.B. Rhine and his lab in the course of some of the long tangential accounts of ghosts or mediums or poltergeist. All of the information was really fascinating, but I could have used a few more guideposts along the way to keep track of what was happening. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that I read most of this book in small chunks when I could find a few spare minutes.
superlove's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh. This is a terribly-written collection of credulous craposity. Ostensibly a history of the Duke Paraspychology Lab, it uses the lab only as a springboard to promote bullshit like poltergeists, ghosts, and psychics. The work of the lab itself was interesting but accounts for only about a quarter of the book, the rest being a handful of sloppily strung-together anecdotes of well-trod territory such as the Amityville Horror and The Exorcist. It is also full of typographical errors, but that's probably not the author's fault.
You know what's annoying? There are so many talented writers out there who can't get their work published, but dreck like this just keeps getting churned out. Save your money and hours of your life; this book is rubbish.
wanderinglynn's review against another edition
2.0
This book wasn't really what I was expecting based on the title and description. I expected a more fascinating story about the the investigations that occurred at the lab, but got a dry biography about J.B. Rhine. I appreciate that the author was clearly trying to balance the sensationalism of paranormal investigations with the science to present a balanced, journalistic work. However, in attempting to do so, the book had too much detail on the intricacies of the experiments and studies that J.B. Rhine conducted, which resulted in a dry, fairly dull book.
Some of the more frustrating aspects was the fact that the Duke Parapsychology Lab really wasn't even a main part of the store. The book did discuss how the lab came to be, but that part of the story was a bit convoluted. The author also spent too much time on what seemed to be extraneous details, such as Louie (J.B.'s wife) sorting through letters and inane detail about Rhine's experiments, which did not add any value to the story. The middle of the book got bogged down and I really had to push through to finish it. It's too bad, because I think with a different approach and maybe different structure, this could have been a really interesting book.
Some of the more frustrating aspects was the fact that the Duke Parapsychology Lab really wasn't even a main part of the store. The book did discuss how the lab came to be, but that part of the story was a bit convoluted. The author also spent too much time on what seemed to be extraneous details, such as Louie (J.B.'s wife) sorting through letters and inane detail about Rhine's experiments, which did not add any value to the story. The middle of the book got bogged down and I really had to push through to finish it. It's too bad, because I think with a different approach and maybe different structure, this could have been a really interesting book.
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