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buffycat's review against another edition
The blurb mentioned 2 comical macabre authors, so I was expecting this to be much more lighthearted. This was much sadder than I anticipated.
katiescho741's review against another edition
4.0
This was an excellent book about death in all its forms. Telling people you're reading a book about death makes you sound like a bit of an oddball, but Black gives this book an informative yet casual tone...she makes death sound like something no one needs to fear.
Sue Black has lived an impressive and varied life and she shares with the reader her various experiences of death; from her personal stories of deaths in the family, to her time helping to identify bodies in a war zone. This is a great read for any fan of either True Crime or Crime Fiction as Black goes into detail about the reality of body disposal and the ins and outs of decomposition.
Some sections are not recommended while you're eating your dinner, but overall Black has written an entertaining, touching, and very interesting book on a topic that most people do not like to talk about at all.
I enjoyed the stories from her time as an anatomy student and the people who want to donate their bodies to science...this book is an unintentional advert for donating your body, and a reminder of what anatomy students can go on and do, and how thankful they are to those people who allow them to learn the skills they need.
The sections on identification were very intriguing, again, a good read for anyone with an interesting in crime fiction or non-fiction.
This book is a great read, and leaves you feeling comforted about death.
Sue Black has lived an impressive and varied life and she shares with the reader her various experiences of death; from her personal stories of deaths in the family, to her time helping to identify bodies in a war zone. This is a great read for any fan of either True Crime or Crime Fiction as Black goes into detail about the reality of body disposal and the ins and outs of decomposition.
Some sections are not recommended while you're eating your dinner, but overall Black has written an entertaining, touching, and very interesting book on a topic that most people do not like to talk about at all.
I enjoyed the stories from her time as an anatomy student and the people who want to donate their bodies to science...this book is an unintentional advert for donating your body, and a reminder of what anatomy students can go on and do, and how thankful they are to those people who allow them to learn the skills they need.
The sections on identification were very intriguing, again, a good read for anyone with an interesting in crime fiction or non-fiction.
This book is a great read, and leaves you feeling comforted about death.
sd227's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
shanaqui's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Sue Black's All that Remains is more personal than her other book, Written in Bone. Much of it still discusses her work as a forensic anthropologist, but it also discusses her early experiences of death, discusses a bit about how she can see horrors and compartmentalise them away from the rest of her life, and talks about how she views death personally, and how she'd like to die.
Throughout, her writing is straight-forward, unflinching from gory details, but clinical. In every case, you get the sense of Black's respect for people, no matter who they are, where they come from, and the details of their lives: if you had to be identified in this way by someone, you'd hope it was her.
Her attitude to death is one that I'd like to internalise more, being an anxiety-ridden mess about all things that touch on death (thanks, trauma). Her work makes for difficult reading in some ways, but her straightforward, unfearing attitude alongside her respect helped me see things more her way (at least for a while). I cried at some of the stories here (stories about her own family, stories about her time in Kosovo, etc), but not in a bad way. One should feel moved by this kind of thing.
Throughout, her writing is straight-forward, unflinching from gory details, but clinical. In every case, you get the sense of Black's respect for people, no matter who they are, where they come from, and the details of their lives: if you had to be identified in this way by someone, you'd hope it was her.
Her attitude to death is one that I'd like to internalise more, being an anxiety-ridden mess about all things that touch on death (thanks, trauma). Her work makes for difficult reading in some ways, but her straightforward, unfearing attitude alongside her respect helped me see things more her way (at least for a while). I cried at some of the stories here (stories about her own family, stories about her time in Kosovo, etc), but not in a bad way. One should feel moved by this kind of thing.
kain47's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0