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leweylibrary's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Another gem from Caitlin Doughty 🙌 of course I wish there had been more from more places around the world, but like she does have a business to run too, she can't actually go all around the world learning and writing about funeral practices and attitudes towards death. As always, I learned a lot and thought a lot about the way I think about death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide
eve81's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
booksandmagic's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Xenophobia, Grief, and Medical trauma
loverrbboy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
5.0
CW, this book isn’t sad but this review kinda is when i had to have my cat put down last year, i had spend hundreds on vet bills, and was emotionally exhausted from months of trying to treat her. i didn’t want to spend more on things that weren’t important to me. i opted to have her cremated cheaply, which meant not receiving any ashes (i didn’t want them anyway - a reminder of how very dead she was and would now always be). i instead asked for ink prints to be made of her paws, and a little jar with a piece of her fur, and i treasure them. i didn’t know at the time that i could have buried her naturally, at home, and when i learned i could have (had i been more open about it), i was devastated. my great grandmother who i barely knew died and i didn’t go to the funeral. i’m hoping that with this book under my belt, i can take the time to be more comfortable with death in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Suicide
sunnybugz's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Body horror
bookverm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
A very important look at how the way we do things in the U.S. when it comes to death and funerals isn’t the only way things have to be.
I really enjoyed Caitlin’s journey through various cultures and how they handle their dead, plus how they handle the families of the dead. A very poignant look into how here in the U.S. we’ve become culturally distanced from and afraid of death. She stresses the importance of how seeing death, being close to death, and allowing space and time to actually grieve properly and be with the body, instead of separated from it, can help us grieve and heal.
It definitely opened my eyes to new ways I’d like to demand the bodies of my loved ones, and my own self, be treated in death.
I actually think it could have been a bit longer - I found myself wanting to learn more about each culture’s practices and having to do some research on my own afterwards.
If you’ve read Caitlin’s first book, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, I would say this was a less descriptively gory, though it does still describe bodies and some states of decay. It also does bring up some emotions so while I would describe it as a “quick read,” and Caitlin injects some humor and a lighthearted tone, I actually put the book down for a while and then came back to it because reading about death in this way can be a bit heavy.
I really enjoyed Caitlin’s journey through various cultures and how they handle their dead, plus how they handle the families of the dead. A very poignant look into how here in the U.S. we’ve become culturally distanced from and afraid of death. She stresses the importance of how seeing death, being close to death, and allowing space and time to actually grieve properly and be with the body, instead of separated from it, can help us grieve and heal.
It definitely opened my eyes to new ways I’d like to demand the bodies of my loved ones, and my own self, be treated in death.
I actually think it could have been a bit longer - I found myself wanting to learn more about each culture’s practices and having to do some research on my own afterwards.
If you’ve read Caitlin’s first book, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, I would say this was a less descriptively gory, though it does still describe bodies and some states of decay. It also does bring up some emotions so while I would describe it as a “quick read,” and Caitlin injects some humor and a lighthearted tone, I actually put the book down for a while and then came back to it because reading about death in this way can be a bit heavy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Death
nebraskanwriter's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
renereadsthings's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
I have death anxiety. My purpose of reading this book and following this authors work was to gain a meaningful sense of control on what I want to do when my demise comes. This book definitely gave me some insight on that.
This book contains a lot of ways in how the United States views death and ways countries around the world embrace death that are different. It gave me insight on what I’d like to do for myself and it helped me open up to the idea of others ways your body can find peace. It challenges the norm in the United States on how we die and what we define as a dignified death. This helped a lot with being okay with my death and the death of others.
I would love to learn more about how other cultures view the dead. This book is a good stepping stone. If your familiar with death culture this could be a bit of a bore since 3 sections surround death culture in the United States. If it gave more insight or prevalence of other cultures I think this would of been a 5 star read for me. Then again maybe a lot of cultures cross and it shows how we are breaking traditional death culture in the states.
This book contains a lot of ways in how the United States views death and ways countries around the world embrace death that are different. It gave me insight on what I’d like to do for myself and it helped me open up to the idea of others ways your body can find peace. It challenges the norm in the United States on how we die and what we define as a dignified death. This helped a lot with being okay with my death and the death of others.
I would love to learn more about how other cultures view the dead. This book is a good stepping stone. If your familiar with death culture this could be a bit of a bore since 3 sections surround death culture in the United States. If it gave more insight or prevalence of other cultures I think this would of been a 5 star read for me. Then again maybe a lot of cultures cross and it shows how we are breaking traditional death culture in the states.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
emfass's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
joanlizluna's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror