Quick impressions: The book attempts to be comprehensive and cover as much of the world as possible. However, such coverage is not consistent. Some areas do get better coverage, and others are pretty superficial. This is one of those books I really wanted to like. The topic sounds interesting, and I did enjoy the author's previous book on Santa Muerte. However, this book was just not as good.

Full review on my blog (goes live Dec. 9): https://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2019/12/booknote-morbid-magic.html


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This is a great overview to various death magics and customs from all over the world. Morbid Magic would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s magical book collection or if you are interested in learning more about different cultures approaches to death and dying.

Death has been a fascinating topic for many people over the years and I am no exception. While I have read about and knew most of the customs for Europe and South America, I learned a lot of interesting new tidbits in regards to Asian countries, North America, and Australia. The one that will stick with me forever and will be great in conversations is the Funeral Strippers. Yes, strippers. For that alone, you need to purchase Morbid Magic to read about it!

What’s great about having overviews for all the countries is if certain things really interest you, Tomas Prower includes lots of links and bibliographic notes where you can look up more details. Spells are also included, although I don't think I'll be trying any of them. But they might be of use to you.

And what I thought was a great bonus was in each chapter you get a take away of a thing you can do to help your transition into death easier for those around you or for yourself. Some of the suggestions were; questioning why things are done the way they are and see if you want to do something different, make sure to let everyone know what you want done with your body and things, letting people know what you think of them before they die, and many more ideas.
While some of the suggestions may seem like no brainers, it is still nice having a guide to help you along.

Prower also included other people’s stories on how death has touched them in their lives. It’s always interesting to me to see how other people deal in a certain situation. And just as a reminder that death shouldn’t be feared since it’s a natural part of life and happens to everyone. ( )