A review by gothmomlite
Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber

5.0

This is a well-written, very academic, text (despite the many anecdotal illustrations of "vampire phenomena," aka decomposition, it's still quite dry). It's repetitive in places, though the repetition did help me to fix certain ideas in my mind, so that's both critique and compliment. The author slips in the occasional quip, so deftly, so casually, that I found myself snorting unexpectedly and wishing he'd elaborate (for example, on why a particular corpse let out a cry on its "second death" because Barber "...almost never [had] occasion to decapitate a corpse with a shovel." *Almost never*? You tease, sir!) Worth a read if you're researching the subject, though do bear in mind that the book contains frank discussion of somewhat grotesque and gory matters (as you might expect from the title).