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steviesnatches's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Enjoyed this a lot, it was surprisingly funny and very informative
suicunejpg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.5
3.5/5 stars 292 pages “We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.” what a deep rabbit hole i fell into with Mary Roach. i have to say i deeply enjoyed a lot of this book because it was extremely educational and her voice is so engaging. as someone with morbid interests i really enjoyed a lot of this book. several parts of it i was already familiar with, sometimes more deeply than she explored, and there were certain things i wished she had included. the parts i was unfamiliar with however were fascinating and for the most part explored in a way that was not boring despite the sometimes very technical and legal subject matter. i will greatly discourage anyone sensitive to ab*se particularly animal ab*se from reading this book - she does not shy from the facts of animal testing that sometimes date back to a very long time ago which obviously were horribly fucked up and really disturbing. if you deal with any kind of body horror triggers i probably would not recommend reading this either - if you have car crash or plane crash anxiety i also would not recommend this book. if you want to read it strongly suggest being capable of compartmentalizing and emotional distancing yourself of upsetting subject matter. roach raised a ton of ethical issues regarding death and what happens to your body after you die - from the soul to cremation to donating your body to science and i learned a TON. i am going to complain however about how much personal commentary and opinions were included in the book - at times it did serve to reduce tension in sections that were particularly upsetting however by the end i got really tired of reading about how she felt and wishing she stayed a bit more subjective. i do understand the importance of a lighter tone when discussing this particular subject - something she herself addressed, however i felt that her jokes at times were of poor taste and inappropriate for the subject matter at hand. this book cemented my opinion that i truly don’t give a fuck what happens to my body when i die and that it being useful for science and saving lives is all i want -
however - i agree with the authors concluding statements. if she passes first, it’s up to her partner to decide what happens to her (outside of organ donation) because it is the survivors that have to deal with the consequences, not the dead.
however - i agree with the authors concluding statements. if she passes first, it’s up to her partner to decide what happens to her (outside of organ donation) because it is the survivors that have to deal with the consequences, not the dead.
hb_bookworm's review against another edition
3.0
i've read one of mary roach's books before, and they're always just a bit too goofy in tone for my liking. i was familiar with a lot of the concepts in this book, but it was interesting to learn more of the nitty gritty details. be warned - i was prepared for human gore going in, and it gets pretty intense, but if animals being harmed bothers you, you're really not going to like parts of this.
tiredenglishteacher's review against another edition
Description of bodies became too graphic for me (should have anticipated this). Maggots as grains of rice or movements beneath sloughing skin? For someone with a stronger stomach than me.
booksnooksandcooks's review against another edition
3.0
I think this is one of those books that, funnily enough since it has to do with death, doesn’t age well. I was losing wind by chapter six and then when Dr. Oz was listed as a source, I basically lost interest and skimmed the last few chapters.
It also felt less like focused on cadavers, per se, and more on just “science that has occasionally used dead bodies but not often” by the end. It just wasn’t my interest, I guess.
It also felt less like focused on cadavers, per se, and more on just “science that has occasionally used dead bodies but not often” by the end. It just wasn’t my interest, I guess.