Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death

Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death

By: Katherine Ramsland  

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Never look at a grave the same way again

Admit it: You're fascinated by cemeteries. We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them?

Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to mortuary assistants, gravediggers, funeral home owners, and more, and find out about:

• Stitching and cosmetic secrets used on mutilated bodies
• Embalmers who do more than just embalm
• The rising popularity of cremation art
• Ghosts that infest graveyards everywhere

If you've ever scoffed at the high price of burying the dead, or ever wondered how your loved ones are handled when they die, or simply stared at tombstones with morbid fascination, then take a trip with Katherine Ramsland and learn about the booming industry -- and strange tales -- that surround cemeteries everywhere.

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

Release Date: 2001-10-02

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
cemetery stories - I enjoyed reading this book, and to me the best part were the websites listed in the back. Interesting..

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Review of Cemetery Stories - It is interesting to read, however it did not have any pictures. National Geographic's television show called "Tabo" showed the body farm in Knoxville, TN in detail and how research there is help us to learn more about crime scene investigation. Some was described in this book. Also some of the crime investigation stories as seen on HBO, with Dr. Michael Baden are described. Some of characters for the movies "Pyscho" and "Texas Chainsaw" are described in reality. The book also talks about necrophilia, the funneral business, interesting stories by morticians, cemetery stories and more.

Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Great idea, but that's all... - Katherine Ramsland has written about death, darkness, and the unknown before. She has, among other things, written biographies about Dean Koontz and the "queen of vampires" Anne Rice, investigated ghost phenomena, and produced a thorough exposé of the secret vampire scene in New York.

In other words; Ramsland is no beginner. She's a skilled writer, she's proven this again and again, however, Cemetery Stories is a low-water mark in her career. It's simply not a very good book.

Still, the topic in itself is perfectly fine. What is life like to a mortician and other members of the "death business", what really happens to a body that has been dead for days or weeks, how happens during an embalming, what's with man's fascination with death, what are some of the most famous ghost stories ever told; these things and much more are brought up to discussion.

But, throughout the entire book the overall perspective is very brief, and while reading one continually feels that there must be more to the stories, things that should and could be told, but are left out. It's very much written for an American audience - who have very different traditions compared to Sweden when it comes to open caskets, funeral homes, and other things of that matter (for instance, only 30% of Americans choose cremation) - but since the topic is global, then there is, in theory, a global audience as well. Too bad the book doesn't feel thoroughly done.

Put another way, there's a lot of potential, but that's all there is. Many of the stories told by Ramsland, stories she's been told by sources or looked up herself, will almost bore you to death, and more or less all her reports of haunted cemeteries or living dead are both pointless and most of all boring, because they all sound like your ordinary urban legend.

At the end of the book Ramsland starts talking about necromancy and necrophilia, but just as the book starts turning interesting it's finished. Considering all the energy devoted earlier in the book to pointless ghost stories, one could only hope Ramsland would spend as much energy on actual phenomena, but no. Instead she chooses to leave the reader high and dry.

The cover is beautiful, the topic interesting, the ambition admirable; but still, it's first and foremost a huge disappointment.

And finally, when Ramsland chooses to analyze traditional urban legends with the attitude "This type of incident has been reported so many times there's no reason to think it does not happen," (p. 174), it really makes one think how skilled she is in critical thinking.

Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Great idea, but that's all... - Katherine Ramsland has written about death, darkness, and the unknown before. She has, among other things, written biographies about Dean Koontz and the "queen of vampires" Anne Rice, investigated ghost phenomena, and produced a thorough exposé of the secret vampire scene in New York.

In other words; Ramsland is no beginner. She's a skilled writer, she's proven this again and again, however, Cemetery Stories is a low-water mark in her career. It's simply not a very good book.

Still, the topic in itself is perfectly fine. What is life like to a mortician and other members of the "death business", what really happens to a body that has been dead for days or weeks, how happens during an embalming, what's with man's fascination with death, what are some of the most famous ghost stories ever told; these things and much more are brought up to discussion.

But, throughout the entire book the overall perspective is very brief, and while reading one continually feels that there must be more to the stories, things that should and could be told, but are left out. It's very much written for an American audience - who have very different traditions compared to Sweden when it comes to open caskets, funeral homes, and other things of that matter (for instance, only 30% of Americans choose cremation) - but since the topic is global, then there is, in theory, a global audience as well. Too bad the book doesn't feel thoroughly done.

Put another way, there's a lot of potential, but that's all there is. Many of the stories told by Ramsland, stories she's been told by sources or looked up herself, will almost bore you to death, and more or less all her reports of haunted cemeteries or living dead are both pointless and most of all boring, because they all sound like your ordinary urban legend.

At the end of the book Ramsland starts talking about necromancy and necrophilia, but just as the book starts turning interesting it's finished. Considering all the energy devoted earlier in the book to pointless ghost stories, one could only hope Ramsland would spend as much energy on actual phenomena, but no. Instead she chooses to leave the reader high and dry.

The cover is beautiful, the topic interesting, the ambition admirable; but still, it's first and foremost a huge disappointment.

And finally, when Ramsland chooses to analyze traditional urban legends with the attitude "This type of incident has been reported so many times there's no reason to think it does not happen," (p. 174), it really makes one think how skilled she is in critical thinking.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great stories! - Loved the funny stories shared by funeral directors. Gives you the behind the scenes details on funerals and prepraration of bodies, without being to gory!

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