Reviews tagging 'Death'

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek

15 reviews

wildthiiiing's review

dark informative fast-paced

4.0

This was a great read - although I typically love reading about this more macabre sort of thing. Sometimes the author didn't do a great job of breaking down the medical terms - but usually she did quite well. At times she also definitely seemed to *try* to be overtly gory or gross about things - but I suppose you should expect that when reading books about cadavers. 

You can clearly tell the author loves her job, and she writes in an upbeat manner for the most part - while giving proper somber tones when needed depending on the subject matter. Occasionally the time line jumps around a little bit - but where she is telling stories based on each particular case and less on an overall timeline, it wasn't a terrible bother. 

This is another book on my 2023 list where I read it in less than 48 hours - I could hardly put it down when I had spare time to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Violence

honeyenbee's review

challenging dark informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, Suicide, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

shaylaeliz's review

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Child death

ksuazo94's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Blood, Gore, Excrement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Rape, Medical trauma, Grief, and Murder

rmika's review

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Murder

aaaugello's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Murder, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Minor: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking

alimata's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Gore, Suicide, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

vigil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

extremely thorough and informative. it’s a great entrance into the world of forensic pathology for people who wish to enter the medical field (like me), or for anyone just plain interested. 

it’s definitely not for the lighthearted, Melinek described her work in visceral detail thar truly conveys exactly what had occurred.

i docked half a point off due to the author’s treatment of suicide. her own father killed himself when she was thirteen, which understandably colored her perception of it. but her low empathy or compassion for the suicidal, ranging from calling them delusional to downright selfish is ugly in a regular person, but willfully ignorant and harmful in a medical professional.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Violence, and Vomit

eatingbrains's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

This book makes me wonder about all the medical examiners that have had to deal with determining covid related deaths and how much they've had to endure during the pandemic.  Overall, it was a bit gruesome but I was fascinated.  If you like crime/medical dramas you'd probably enjoy this book.

Also, I'm a total nerd so when they used an SEM to look at the ends of a suture to determine if it was tied off properly I was stoked since I've used them to look at tiny shit.  It's fucking cool!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Medical content, Child death, Gore, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Self harm, and Stalking

inkstainedworld's review

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Gore, and Drug abuse