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Reviews tagging 'Gore'
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
69 reviews
epellicci's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide attempt
siobhanward's review
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Doughty's <i> From Here to Eternity <i/> was one of my favourite reads last year, and I was excited to read this one. While it wasn't quite as strong, I still really enjoyed Doughty's honest voice and the connections she makes to cultures outside of the US. I know how/why the US (and Canadian) burial systems exist and am familiar with rituals around death/dying that are common here. However, that's obviously only one very narrow view of death, and I appreciated Doughty's recognition of others and how US laws need to be amended in order to include more non-Western forms of burial and mourning.
Doughty approaches the topic of death with kindness and presents it in a way that feels so normal and natural that you forget you're reading about death. She speaks kindly in the book about those who are deceased, which I find isn't always the case in these kinds of books. Often these authors become so desensitized to deaths they forget that their audience is not desensitized in the same way (and that their readers may include loved ones of the deceased, who don't want to read crass or offhand comments about them).
Anyway, Doughty writes about death in a way that really makes a step towards making it not seem terrifying (including talking about things that worry people about death). Honestly, this book was written in a way that make me question if I should have gone into the funerary business as a career (answer: no, I'm far too emotional for that), but she writes about it in a way that makes it sound so important and critical (which is true) that you just want to be a part of it.
Doughty approaches the topic of death with kindness and presents it in a way that feels so normal and natural that you forget you're reading about death. She speaks kindly in the book about those who are deceased, which I find isn't always the case in these kinds of books. Often these authors become so desensitized to deaths they forget that their audience is not desensitized in the same way (and that their readers may include loved ones of the deceased, who don't want to read crass or offhand comments about them).
Anyway, Doughty writes about death in a way that really makes a step towards making it not seem terrifying (including talking about things that worry people about death). Honestly, this book was written in a way that make me question if I should have gone into the funerary business as a career (answer: no, I'm far too emotional for that), but she writes about it in a way that makes it sound so important and critical (which is true) that you just want to be a part of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gore
trapdorr's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Intriguing topic. Makes you reflect on what you’d want for your death or a loved one’s death. Dark at times and humorous at others. Ended a bit abruptly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gore
Minor: Suicide
bisexualbookshelf's review
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty is a poignant and unflinching exploration of death that challenges our cultural aversion to mortality. Doughty, armed with a degree in medieval history and a job at a crematory, delves into the often-hidden world of death care with dark humor and thoughtful reflections. The book begins with her first day at the mortuary, where she confronts the reality of death head-on by shaving and cremating bodies. Through these experiences, Doughty humanizes our remains, resisting the erasure of who we were in life.
Doughty's narrative is deeply personal, shaped by witnessing the death of a toddler at the age of eight, an experience that left a lasting impression on her. She argues that our fear of death stems from cultural aversions and a lack of fluency in death’s language. By examining death rituals and practices across time and cultures, Doughty aims to demystify death and encourage a more honest engagement with it. Her writing seamlessly moves between moments of dark comedy and profound insight, insisting that people deserve care and respect even in and after death.
The book critiques the historical shift from dying at home to dying in hospitals, highlighting the medicalization and industrialization of death. Doughty exposes the "funeral industrial complex," driven by capitalism, that has transformed death into a commercial product. Each chapter explores different death practices, from cremation to embalming, showcasing their variations across cultures and history. Doughty demands that we confront death and accept it as a natural biological process, arguing that this acceptance can lead to a more authentic way of living.
However, my experience with the book was marred by a chapter that explores our cultural aversion to decomposing bodies through a fatphobic lens. Doughty's description of cremating a fat person was uncomfortable and detracted from the book’s overall message. This language, though perhaps reflective of the time it was written, feels out of place in an otherwise insightful and respectful exploration of death.
Despite this flaw, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes remains a compelling read that challenges norms about death and invites readers to rethink their relationship with mortality. Doughty's reflections on death are profound and thought-provoking, and I look forward to exploring her more recent work. This book is a bold call to embrace the inevitability of death, urging us to live more fully in its shadow.
📖 Recommended For: Readers fascinated by the macabre, those interested in death rituals across cultures, anyone who values candid discussions about mortality, fans of Mary Roach.
🔑 Key Themes: Mortality and Acceptance, Cultural Death Practices, Capitalism and the Funeral Industry, Humanization of the Dead, Historical Shifts in Death Care.
Doughty's narrative is deeply personal, shaped by witnessing the death of a toddler at the age of eight, an experience that left a lasting impression on her. She argues that our fear of death stems from cultural aversions and a lack of fluency in death’s language. By examining death rituals and practices across time and cultures, Doughty aims to demystify death and encourage a more honest engagement with it. Her writing seamlessly moves between moments of dark comedy and profound insight, insisting that people deserve care and respect even in and after death.
The book critiques the historical shift from dying at home to dying in hospitals, highlighting the medicalization and industrialization of death. Doughty exposes the "funeral industrial complex," driven by capitalism, that has transformed death into a commercial product. Each chapter explores different death practices, from cremation to embalming, showcasing their variations across cultures and history. Doughty demands that we confront death and accept it as a natural biological process, arguing that this acceptance can lead to a more authentic way of living.
However, my experience with the book was marred by a chapter that explores our cultural aversion to decomposing bodies through a fatphobic lens. Doughty's description of cremating a fat person was uncomfortable and detracted from the book’s overall message. This language, though perhaps reflective of the time it was written, feels out of place in an otherwise insightful and respectful exploration of death.
Despite this flaw, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes remains a compelling read that challenges norms about death and invites readers to rethink their relationship with mortality. Doughty's reflections on death are profound and thought-provoking, and I look forward to exploring her more recent work. This book is a bold call to embrace the inevitability of death, urging us to live more fully in its shadow.
📖 Recommended For: Readers fascinated by the macabre, those interested in death rituals across cultures, anyone who values candid discussions about mortality, fans of Mary Roach.
🔑 Key Themes: Mortality and Acceptance, Cultural Death Practices, Capitalism and the Funeral Industry, Humanization of the Dead, Historical Shifts in Death Care.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Blood, and Cannibalism
sarafinley's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood
haleyhorrorshow's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
"Sifting through an urn of cremated remains you cannot tell if a person had successes, failures, grandchildren, felonies."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Violence, Vomit, and Car accident
mleigh11's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
breadbummer's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Colonisation
Minor: Sexual content
nikenacs's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
I picked this up not thinking much of it, both because I'd had a recent death in my family and because my local library was offering the e-book. And man, I'm so happy I read this. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did, I was INTO IT.
The ins and outs of the crematorium are interesting enough, but the true strength of this book is in its reflections on our society's attitude towards death. Absolutely 10/10 on that front. As someone who has had little to no contact with death in my personal life, this gave me a lot to think about.
Very US-centric, which is not a bad thing, but instead made me very curious to research how the funeral industry works in Germany, and Western Europe in general.
A tad superficial at times, oftentimes a chapter ended just when I felt like we were really getting into it. I appreciate that it combined more light-hearted personal memoir elements with philosophy and history as well as politics, but it could have been a tad more of the latter for my taste.
But all in all, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this opened my eyes on how we treat both our dead and our dying. Will be recommending, will be checking out more of Doughty's work.
(And on a personal note, I knew I was right when I wanted to set up my testament and funeral wishes when I was in elementary school! Take that, parents.)
The ins and outs of the crematorium are interesting enough, but the true strength of this book is in its reflections on our society's attitude towards death. Absolutely 10/10 on that front. As someone who has had little to no contact with death in my personal life, this gave me a lot to think about.
Very US-centric, which is not a bad thing, but instead made me very curious to research how the funeral industry works in Germany, and Western Europe in general.
A tad superficial at times, oftentimes a chapter ended just when I felt like we were really getting into it. I appreciate that it combined more light-hearted personal memoir elements with philosophy and history as well as politics, but it could have been a tad more of the latter for my taste.
But all in all, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this opened my eyes on how we treat both our dead and our dying. Will be recommending, will be checking out more of Doughty's work.
(And on a personal note, I knew I was right when I wanted to set up my testament and funeral wishes when I was in elementary school! Take that, parents.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer, Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Violence, and Cannibalism
Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, and Abortion
angorarabbit's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Context: I have been following Ms Doughty’s YouTube channel for a few years now, it’s about time I read her first book.
This is mainly a memoir and I am not qualified to judge Ms Doughty’s life. Her writing style is bright and breezy even when talking about serious things. That is not to say that she makes light of her topics, she absolutely does not. She sounds like the type of funeral director I wish my mother had talked to when choosing the casket for my grandfather.
There has been many deaths in my life, human and non-human animals. And I have been watching the videos so the message of the book was something I was familiar with already. I can see that it would be very helpful for those who are having their first encounter with the US funeral industry.
One of my fears about death is the mess someone or other will have to clean up. I would be happy if my cats could eat not just my eyeballs but the rest of me as well, leaving a nice clean skeleton to put in some anatomy lab somewhere. While it does not seem like putting bodies in the forest for the bear, wolf, and mountain lion to consume willt be feasible (at least not legally) in the near future, I hope Ms Doughty and others will make a future in the US where loved ones are not pressured to go into debt while their grief is still fresh and where everyone can grieve as they need too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident
Graphic descriptions of the process of cremation, embalming, and other funeral practices.