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

dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Very intriguing, well written book. Pretty graphic but not for shock value. Caitlin writes about death and the things that she saw working in a crematory in a very matter of fact way that made it so interesting to learn about. Weaving in historical pieces on death practices in different cultures and throughout history was fascinating too. 

There was a pretty abrupt and random chapter with some, in my opinion, unnecessary fatphobic themes, but other than that I really enjoyed the process of reading this book and thinking about death myself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts