Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

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

10 reviews

nikenacs's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.75

I picked this up not thinking much of it, both because I'd had a recent death in my family and because my local library was offering the e-book. And man, I'm so happy I read this. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did, I was INTO IT.

The ins and outs of the crematorium are interesting enough, but the true strength of this book is in its reflections on our society's attitude towards death. Absolutely 10/10 on that front. As someone who has had little to no contact with death in my personal life, this gave me a lot to think about. 

Very US-centric, which is not a bad thing, but instead made me very curious to research how the funeral industry works in Germany, and Western Europe in general. 

A tad superficial at times, oftentimes a chapter ended just when I felt like we were really getting into it. I appreciate that it combined more light-hearted personal memoir elements with philosophy and history as well as politics, but it could have been a tad more of the latter for my taste. 

But all in all, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this opened my eyes on how we treat both our dead and our dying.  Will be recommending, will be checking out more of Doughty's work. 

(And on a personal note, I knew I was right when I wanted to set up my testament and funeral wishes when I was in elementary school! Take that, parents.) 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Moderate: Cancer, Violence, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, and Abortion

vanesst's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Terminal illness, Animal death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

pettypierrot's review against another edition

challenging funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Terminal illness

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

cooper_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Sexism, Medical content, Racism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Vomit

ssarahbbeth's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use, Terminal illness, Cursing, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

lailams's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I didn't think I'd ever describe a book about funerals as "funny" - let alone enjoy it - yet here we are. Caitlin Doughty masterfully crafted the reflective journey of a lifetime (death time?) in my eyes. I picked it up thinking 'huh, I suppose I don't know much about the funeral industry, I'm sure information on it would come in handy' and put it down a changed person, a semi-revolutonist ready to call every person I know and talk about our shamed, silent culture around death. I've talked about death with my mom and sister quite a bit - we've all known forever that we wanted natural burials - but the layers that this book will add to our conversations (and my personal conversations with myself) about our deaths is frankly irreplaceable. I'm thankful to have read this book. I would like to say I've come out of this book comfortable with my mortality, but I don't think that's the case. It'll take me a lot longer to undo the cultural brainwashing that has told me to fear death for so long. But I'm ready to start on the journey. Oddly enough, this book about death has made me excited to live and learn. It's been so long since a book has genuinely, existentially impacted me like this - it's an easy 5 stars. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit and Gore

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

I saw many of my concerns and thoughts about death reflected and answered in this book, and I was given lots more to ponder. Caitlin has a way of writing these things nonchalantly and straight to the facts, while mantaining an engaging and eerie, reflective vibe.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Vomit, Trafficking, Cancer, and Miscarriage

babayaga1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Vomit, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Excrement, and Chronic illness