Neither one thing nor the other

I'm not sure what I expected buying this audiobook, and getting it at the 80% off sale, I naively thought, what's there to lose?

This is a flimsy book. It's not in-depth enough to be truly informative, nor is the author comedically adept enough to make it a jaunty flight of fancy. There are a few anecdotes about pseudo-cide and interviews with experts who debunk commonly held myths about faking one's death. If the book stopped there, we'd be left with a mildly interesting, but very short, pamphlet about the phenomenon. But an inordinate amount of time is spent humoring a Michael Jackson fake death conspiracist. An hour or so of filler to make the book seem a bit more substantial. That chapter is seventy minutes, but it seemed interminable. Then a few chapters of purple prose bemoaning the suffering of the friends and family, and tedious philosophizing about life, debt and death, which had led the author to pursuing the project in the first place. Okay, I blew 4 or 5 bucks on a disappointing book, but hey, so it goes.

The only redeeming thing about this book, is that the author didn't read it herself. The introduction was read by her, and it was at least a welcome relief to have a professional, adult voice to read the body of the book.

7 people found this helpful

Naive and romantic view of death

What I liked about this book (on Audible): The narrator was very good. The book also looks at the issue from all viewpoints, the people who fake death; those who get caught; the people left behind; and the people who help the fraudsters. It was an interesting look at a subject I had never heard of before.

What I didn't like about this book: The author is a little too naive. She finds the whole idea of faking your own death romantic and actually begins the book by contemplating faking her dead to get out of student debt, because she owes in the 6 figures. I am a former law student. I don't know anyone who doesn't have the kind of debt. You learn to live with it and get on with your life. Throughout the story she seems both surprised and disappointed that her original romantic ideas of death fraud were too childish and fantastic to be what she thought, like meeting her childhood hero and finding he couldn't fly in real life. The book is also more about her growing up finally (at 31 years old), and realizing regular life is good enough, than death fraud. There is way too much of the author in the narrative for my taste.

4 people found this helpful

Some flat spots, but overall fantastic.

I'm quite intrigued by the subject, so this book pricked my interest. It turns out that faking your own death is very difficult to execute and get away with without getting caught and serving jail time.

4 people found this helpful

Listened to it twice!

I loved Ms. Greenwood's inquiry into the world of death fraud. Her perspective was personally-relevant and thought-provoking.

3 people found this helpful

Information is great, but the book isn't

There's so much great information in this book - the world of death fraud is endlessly fascinating. Unfortunately, the author's wrap around story is uncompelling (if not out and out irritating), and the writing style feels as well written as a blog. If it weren't in audiobook format, I would have skimmed the first few chapters where the most interesting information is presented and skipped over big chunks of the filler.

2 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable!

Liz Greenwoods narrative is honest, open and thoroughly enjoyable! it's a light-hearted book on a more serious topic. I would recommend!

1 person found this helpful

enjoyed it fully

gear work. super interesting. top narrator. when it ended, I wanted to hear more. looking forward to more books from the author.

1 person found this helpful

playing dead

easy listen, enjoyable story of various people and their experience at attempting to disappear. not a how to book, light on any actual ideas and steps which can be used to vanish. a story of a young woman fresh out of college and saddled with a huge student loan debt. her only escape is daydreaming about faking her death and beginning anew. enjoy just don't expect too much.

1 person found this helpful

Loved it

playing Dead is written well. it's clever, funny, surprising, entertaining, and insightful. Elizabeth Greenwood one day had an idea to escape her massive student loan debt: she could fake her own death! this epiphany started a five-year journey into the phenomenon of death fraud. she researched all angles, interviewing people who investigate death fraud, make a living helping people disappear, fake their deaths, or who mourn the loved ones they believe have died. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this quirky subject, written by someone with a great talent for storytelling.

1 person found this helpful

Circles

Any additional comments?

Playing Dead is fun for a little while. A short while. But there just isn't that much to cover. a few very interesting stories, and then. . . a few more stories. Actually the stories are great.

What runs the book in circles is that the author herself seems to have realized she didn't have enough material to make a book, so she decided to take the book from the angel that she would fake her own death to get rid of credit card loans. But -- since we know know know she isn't going to really fake her own death, it is just wasted space like a dog chasing its tail in circles. Pointless.

She runs to a lot of shady people who explain why she doesn't really want to fake her death. As she weaves her own totally pointless story through very interesting stories, the reader wants to raise their hand, "Could you make this less about you and more about the real subject please?"

2 people found this helpful