pamela
The Premonitions Bureau was a fascinating book. It dealt with tragedy in a way that was both empathetic but dispassionate, which I found genuinely surprising. The idea behind the real-life "Premonitions Bureau" is so far-fetched that the book could easily have fallen into farce and become a lighthearted non-fiction comedy of errors. But it didn't. Sam Knight managed to deal with his subject matter in a way that showed genuine compassion for every person in his story, no matter what role they played.
Despite being factual, The Premonitions Bureau read like a novel, and I found myself furiously turning the pages to find out what happened next. For this reason, I felt the end was a little lacking - but I suspect that is due to the nature of the events themselves, and not for any poor writing on Knight's part. Because the rest of the narrative was so engrossing, the end of The Premonitions Bureau felt like a flame that just fizzled out and left me a little underwhelmed.
Still, this is a crazy non-fiction romp that I can highly recommend to readers of all kinds. Knight takes no firm stance on the objective truth of premonitions, which made the book thought-provoking rather than restrictive. I'll definitely be reading more from Sam Knight in future.