Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

22 reviews

old_man_niemand's review against another edition

emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

elvahn's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

Campbell's book is extremely informative, written truthfully and with care, about various angles of death work. The chapters are ordered in a way that allows the reader to ease into the material (as much as one can, given the topic) before exploring the heavier topics (again, given the topic) therein. 

I read this book in part because I want to find ways to help process and eliminate mysteries surrounding death, to some degree, especially after these last few years. This book helped, examining the topic through a scientific lens while also highlighting all of the care work that often goes unnoticed. If you're interested in these kinds of conversations, I highly recommend reading this book. ...just remember to take breaks! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Miscarriage, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Some chapters were more emotionally challenging to read than others, so readers may want to consider planning gentle 'aftercare' rituals for their reading.

teh_niarr's review against another edition

emotional informative fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

grimmauxillatrix's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Everyone knows about funeral directors, some people know about embalmers, but how many people know about pathologist technologists or bereavement midwives? A very good coverage of the overlooked people and positions in the death industry. 

The author reads the audiobook, and the best parts are where she lets her reading get emotional. Otherwise, her voice is flat, like she's reading a paper in front of her class. She doesn't have a bad voice or an annoying nasality or anything, it just gets a little boring sometimes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Genocide, Infertility, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death

THIS BOOK DISCUSSES DEATH, DEAD BODIES AND THE AFTERMATH OF DEATH IN EXPLICIT DETAIL. THE SUBJECT IS HEAVY AND TREATED WITH APPROPRIATE GRAVITY AND RESPECT, BUT IT IS VERY DETAILED. IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU CAN HANDLE LISTENING TO AN UPSETTING STORY ABOUT A DEAD BABY, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK

kitausu's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Sometimes funny, often sad and difficult, this was such an amazing read. It absolutely is not for the faint of heart, but if you can, I would highly recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

amandat's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide, Violence, and War

Not for everyone, but I found it absolutely fascinating!

burdasnest's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

 I was really hoping this book would be a good companion to Stiff by Mary Roach, but the only similarity was the journalistic approach. It was certainly informative, but the author interjected her own experiences and opinions amidst the information more than I would have personally preferred. To me, that just padded the book, and I would have preferred it to be more informative and shorter in that case. The point that we owe gratitude and grace to the unseen death workers is well taken, but I could have been spared the philosophy of the author on how she processes death. It is not humorous, and it's certainly not for anyone squeamish. But at the same time, the author manages to make gore and guts boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

marareading's review

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

3.5 rounded up. I definitely enjoyed this. I am a novice to this genre and topic so this might be skewed based on that alone. Her perspective is what made this book fascinating for me. She paid attention to the people in the fields of study and their reactions and lives, not just the processes (however also amazingly fascinating). <Spoiler> I especially loved at the end when she talked about how every person in every profession was separated and usually took issue with a profession in another step of the process. <Spoiler> Overall this is interesting and enjoyable information for me. I learned a lot. If you enjoy this topic this would be a book to gain not just information, but human perspectives from all sides of the industry deal with death. 

There are VERY heavy triggers in this book, including a chapter focused heavily on child/infant death and the last portion of the book repeating reactions to said chapter. Please read with awareness and self care 💜

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jagbybirth's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

cadence99's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

While I had my moments of doubt with this book, mostly due to my concerns of it having the potential to be exploitative towards highly emotional topic, I think it was an overall really worthwhile read. There were some chapters I really didn’t love (the crime scene cleaner particularly), but there were more that I appreciated then those I didn’t. It’s an interesting exploration of the way some cope with the inevitability of death 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fatphobia