Catrien Ross

Firstly, despite the title, this book spends much of its time focusing on semi-modern (at times pseudo-scientific) spiritualists, and some of the rest going over historical figures in similar lights. Only a very narrow section near the end even touches on ghost stories or youkai of any kind.

Perhaps some of the tone could be related to the content's original publish date (1996), but there is also a broad and uncomfortable thread of Orientalism that comes up again and again (and a few shades show more of other varieties of racism, in places).

Structurally, the book is not well laid out; Ross shifts from person to person in her collection of spiritualists and other figures to display without divider, break, or introduction, as though merely continuing an ongoing discussion of each - repeatedly. It leaves a reader easily lost and confused, expecting a paragraph to continue the discussion of the one prior, only to find that topic has been abandoned unfinished in favour of another. show less