This is my first read from Pen and Sword History, but it won't be my last! This was a fascinating read that was meticulously researched and discusses society's fear of being buried alive, as well as the history around it. It discusses this happening purposefully, as well as natural disasters. This was at times difficult to read, but overall a great book I'd recommend to anyone interested in the topic.

This is a chilling yet fascinating exploration of humanity’s deepest fear—being buried alive. Informative and intriguing
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Buried Alive promises a chilling dive into one of humanity’s oldest fears - premature burial - and while the concept is undeniably compelling, the execution falls short. Despite the wealth of potential in its subject matter, the book reads more like a disorganised list of loosely connected anecdotes than a coherent narrative. Intriguing in idea but ultimately unsatisfying in execution.

Another quality reference book from Pen and Sword History.

Meticulously researched and covering a wide range of topics from the fear of being buried alive to the voluntary demonstrations by fakirs or escapologists. This is a book that has painstakingly catalogued and recorded the many episodes of accidental burials through cave-ins to landslides. The crimes associated with disposing of a body when the victim was still alive to the traditions and superstitions demanding the internment of living sacrifices to appease the gods and ancient deities.

Not always an easy read but rewarding in its faithful documentation of all aspects covered in this comprehensive book.

I remember films around fears of premature burial and the demand for elaborate measures to raise the alarm if received in one’s coffin. I especially recall bells to be rung. The book goes into so much more detail and reminded me of the Edgar Allan Poe stories I imaged in the horror films I’d watched.

I was distressed by the countless accidents where people were buried and found that historically we seemed slow to put into place adequate safety measures and adopt common sense. I remember poignantly the Aberfan disaster and despair still at the international aid efforts to earthquake destroyed buildings. Whole communities in inadequate housing to survive earthquakes, buried alive and still many after the collapse homes, survivors are pulled out, often babies, alive.

A book to inform and entertain in parts as we travel through a history of fear, misunderstanding and into modern science.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the ARC.

A very detailed history of being buried alive and the reasons why we do it both intentionally and accidentally. It goes through prehistory to present-day retelling hundreds of accounts of the phenomenon, then more accounts organized by how it happened: ritual sacrifice, murder, punishment, war, natural disaster, etc. Finally ends with how we try to prevent this from happening when we aren't doing it on purpose. The extensive details come at the cost of sounding repetitive, where certain passages feel like they were copy-pasted to whichever spot they fit. Otherwise, it's a really good source of information, and I may have gotten an idea to write a short story thanks to this book.

When I hear “buried alive”, I automatically think about people mistakenly buried due to looking dead. But this book touches so many more reasons and instances - from accidents to sacrifices to intentional, etc. I learned a lot about different times and countries with different perspectives and customs, and different approaches to death. I enjoyed this book a lot and I love that it made me think.

Just like a really long list. It became monotonous very quickly. Some of the stories seemed identical to one another, which probably lends itself to the folklore around live burials, but the author lists each one pretty much equally. In the first few chapters especially I wondered how many were simply urban legends with no actual basis in reality (the lady's fingers they cut off for her rings for example). But he doesn't investigate much beyond "this article said it happened."

Speaking of, many of these stories just end abruptly like 🤷🏻‍♀️. For example, "She afterwards related many curious things that she apparently saw while in the trance." Okay, SUCH AS...? If I recall, this woman was brought back from the dead and you give us NOTHING?!

Finally, much of the writing is clunky and dated. Like I know this thing [insert old timey event] happened in 1800-whatever, but maybe don't use uncomfy dated race identifiers. Not to mention "burials alive." There's no way that's correct. Say "live burials" or "instances of being buried alive" if you must keep with the title phrase.

It was a great idea for a book but very poorly executed. There are no stories, no themes, no real historical context. It is a collection of random examples of accidental burials (or close calls). Most are only a couple of sentences long. This needed a serious editor to encourage the author to categorize and contextualize the examples, and show them how to choose stories that have real throughlines and can be explored.

Buried Alive is a morbid and fascinating book that is so incredibly human at its core. There is something uniquely terrifying about this topic.

The writing style and format sadly let the book down. The information dumping was a constant throughout and we were left without a tangible narrative to pull everything together. It was really interesting to see how pervasive this fear has been throughout the centuries and across cultures. However, the author changed stories so quickly that I practically had whiplash and I felt we could have went deeper with each area. I wish the story could have been more focussed or divided up differently. This is clearly a very well researched piece, but became rather repetitive.

I liked the inclusion of the bibliography at the back as this book is an excellent starting point when delving deeper into the macabre.

This is a really fascinating book that delves into the many cases of premature burial. It's definitely not a bedtime read, especially if the reader suffers from claustrophobia! The author covers many proven, terrifying cases of 'corpses' awakening after being interred in a coffin. In the past, there wasn't any totally reliable method of assuring that a person was dead. Fortunately, advances in medical technology and processes to confirm death have lessened the chances of this happening.
The author covers a number of possible historical causes of being buried alive including catalepsy, comas, severe shocks, and infectious diseases.
I can't say that I enjoyed reading this disturbing book, but I found it hard to put down.

This is an interesting book about people being being buried alive. It's well researched and I found it really fascinating. If you have an interest in this subject matter, I would recommend this! Special Thank You to AJ Griffiths - Jones, Pen & Sword and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Buried Alive by A.J. Griffiths-Jones is a gripping and unsettling true-crime account that delves into a chilling case of deception and murder. The author’s meticulous research and vivid storytelling bring the dark events to life, offering readers a compelling and haunting read. Perfect for true-crime enthusiasts.

This book is very well researched and very interesting. It definitely made me freaked out. However, the formatting of this book wasn’t my favorite. It felt like a lot of information dumping about different cases, uncovering how they tried to avoid being buried alive.. etc. I felt like the book could have been sectioned out by specific countries or eras? The writing was kind of dry, too.

Riveting, triggering, informative, emotional. Wow! An absolutely fascinating book that was detailed and clearly well researched. I won't lie, this is not or the faint of heart, but if you don't mind some macabre and discomfort (literally squirming in your seat) you'll enjoy this dark look at an unfortunate phenomenon.

Perhaps this wasn’t my best choice in bedtime reading, I’m surprised I didn’t have nightmares but it was an absolutely fascinating read. The subject matter - who knew that this was such an extensive area- was incredibly well researched with astonishing rigour. The number of examples of this macabre subject is quite vast which came as a bit of a shock. Each one is treated with respect and the detail that it deserves to paint a really detailed picture. Fascinating, compelling and thought provoking reading but perhaps not for the faint hearted.

This books shares the harrowing stories of people's throughout history who met the most terrifying of ends.
It's a challenge to get through any of the tales without the feeling of claustrophobia setting in.
This book balances the fears with fascinating histories and osteology. Its very accessible for both the expert in and the layman.
You will travel the world with each haunting case study and realise more and more that maybe a bell attached to your coffin may not be such a bad idea at all...

Okay, so this started great. I think it could have done with much better editing, though, as it reads almost like a Wikipedia list of occurrences, moving from one to the next. It's very repetitive

This was an interesting read and very evident gow much research has gone into this book. However, for each account it was more so short paragraphs of information, I feel this book could have been played out differently as it wasn't really a story.
Interesting information and never realised how easy it was to bury people alive. Terrifying.

This definitely unlocked a new fear. I Def got goosebumps and I can't for the life of me imagine what it would be like to be in those situations. Shudder much!!!!

Buried Alive by AJ Griffith Jones, I read another book similar to this one but found this one so much better it encompassed every kind of burial from buildings falling on top of people to cave-ins the actual funeral rituals that left people entombed in the dirt and alive. They also talked about the famous people who feared it the politicians who try to prevent it in those who were so prideful and denied it even happened. It seemed every culture known to man from those in South America Britain the Middle East ET see feared being buried alive the author even covered those who buried people alive on purpose I was really fascinated by those who fought in wars and were buried under all the dead people there was just so much information in this book and I think Mr. Griffith Jones dotted every I and crossed every T when researching this topic and it made for a very interesting read with lots of OMG moments. This is definitely a book readers will want to have on their coffee table or their TBR pile either way once you start it you’ll find it hard to put down I certainly did. I love stuff like this and I enjoyed it so much. #NetGalley, #PinAndSwordPress, #AJGriffithJones, #BuriedAlive,