Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

8 reviews

chareth666's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Miscarriage, Sexism, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

specificwonderland's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

Liked the writing and narration. The topics stayed somewhat surface level. The end turned into a textbook or philosophical exercise. It was like the first 3/4 was saying, "Ewwww isn't this wild?" and the last 1/4 was about the future of the funeral industry and how we do/should/could view mortality. It was ok. I also added a few trigger warnings to larger bodies. I thought the scene felt a little (more accurately "moderately") judgey/predatory. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

lexa's review against another edition

funny informative

4.25

I feel very mixed in this one. Parts were captivating, other parts I sped up the narration just to move it along. I laughed, I cried. Overall, I would read another book by this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Body shaming, Blood, and Car accident

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and Classism

aquakerwitch's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

ainsleys's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

A really interesting book, especially regarding the history of our relationship with death and the deceased. I enjoyed the sections about the few other cultures mentioned, I would've loved more on that. The personal anecdotes were also interesting and entertaining, however I felt like she was trying to prove how tough and quirky she is, just like she struggled to prove herself to her boss. Some of the descriptions felt like they were only added for shock value, almost as if to say if you can't handle it you are weak with an unhealthy relationship to death. 

The whole book had this judgemental tone, if you disagreed or had a different relationship with death, you were in denial, or even a bad person. For example, a family who chose a less expensive internet option for their nine year old daughter was judged and berated as being bad parents who didn't care. I can imagine nothing worse than after loosing a child having to go to a funeral home and speak with a clearly judgemental stranger about how much you're willing to spend on the funeral arrangements. All while the judgemental stranger tries to sell you add ons or extras that if you don't get means you are a bad parent who doesn't care. No thank you, I would rather grieve and process the loss surrounded by loved ones. Plus she lacked any empathy that the family may have been forced into such arrangements because they were unable to afford a more expensive, face to face option. 

I also felt like important issues were glossed over.

For example, her suicidal thoughts seemed to just vanish after she decided not to commit suicide, with no mention being made again. No mention was made about recovery, as if it is as easy as just deciding against suicide, which rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Overall this book still got a fairly high rating because of the interesting premise and subject matter, and the structure of being part memoir and part history examination. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Terminal illness, and Dementia

fatimak's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

This book, a memoir about the experiences of a woman who has worked in crematoriams (and more widely the funeral industry), was utterly fascinating. I went in knowing next to nothing about how crematoriums work (and very little about "Western" funerary customs in general, actually, as I'm from a Muslim family and our funerary traditions are quite different from traditional "Western" ones), so I found it so interesting to learn about the process that someone working at a crematorium follows in preparing a human body for its final resting state. 

I'll be honest, I'm not sure why I, someone who is extremely squeamish, thought I could handle a book about death/working with dead bodies, even after encountering the warning in the introduction that there would be fairly graphic descriptions of dead bodies in pretty awful states. Nonetheless, I did make it through the entire book, something that likely attests to how interesting it was that I was able to push past the uncomfortable nature of the stuff I was reading. To start with, I did actually feel very uncomfortable with the descriptions of dead people (particularly when the author was describing corpses that were in really "gross" shape) and I found myself physically cringing at parts (a bit unfortunate that I mostly listened to this book in audio form while I was out for a walk as anyone who passed me must have been concerned about the state of discomfort I appeared to be in, though wearing a face mask probably helped to shield most of my cringing!). However, after a while I did start to get used to it and stopped flinching every time things like face mould or bodily fluids leaking from cadavers were described. 

While learning about the day-to-day experiences of someone who works at a crematorium was certainly interesting, what I found equally, if not more, fascinating was the author's insights into how working in this field affected her outlook on life and death. Fair warning, this book is likely to send you spiralling into an existential crisis. It definitely had me thinking a lot about my own existence and mortality, but the author also raises interesting points about the general mindset, of Western cultures specifically, towards death and how we can (and probably should) change our way of thinking about death so that we aren't constantly terrified of this thing that is a certainty for all of us. 

The book takes the form of a memoir, recounting the author's own experiences and reflections, but also delves a little into medieval history and areas of cultural anthropology, which I found broke the book up nicely and were interesting additions. 

Overall, this was a super fascinating read that introduced a topic I am certain to continue to think about and perhaps read into further. Do be sure to look into the trigger/content warnings for this book if you're thinking of reading it as it really doesn't hold back (not just in relation to death/gore, but also on topics such as suicidal thoughts/OCD/some body shaming etc.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Body shaming and Suicidal thoughts