Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

59 reviews

finnickdeservedbetter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Themes

• Death and mortality
• Death positivity and death plans
• The American/western Death industry
• Confronting the fear of death
• Death practices

My Thoughts:
Baby's (23yo's) first memior!

I was already familiar with Caitlin prior to reading this. Both through her YouTube videos and having read her other two novels.

Favourite Quote:

“Through the thick fog, I coyld barely make out a sign above the road: cemetery, 1 mile. I strode up the hill, walking straight down the center of the road with big, bild steps—bigger and bolder than my cardiovascular health should have allowed for."

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Medical content, Blood, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

ehamlett's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Medical content, and Death

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Blood, Animal death, and Dementia

frankieclc's review against another edition

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Suicide, Body horror, and Gore

savyelizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

Minor: Classism and Racism

wai's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

just_jeffrey0597's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Very informative and leads to a thought provoking experience about death and dying in American society 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Cannibalism, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Child death, Dementia, Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

cadence99's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

What I liked:
•the discussion of death practices in various cultures 
•the authors personal musings on how best to manage the image and processing of death

What I didn’t like:
•chapters feel a bit disjointed in their themes
•the repeated use of race as a descriptor for ONLY non-white people when it is irrelevant to the narrative of the story being told
•pretty gross anti-fat comments, primarily in one particular section where she talks about her coworker declaring that despite the medical examiners determination to the contrary, the person MUST have died of a heart attack from being so fat and “This is why you can’t be fat!”- in addition to describing in great detail how fat bodies smell worse, but then dismissing the coworkers comments as “just fact” (even though he is literally ignoring fact by assuming the mans cause of death is not the one determined by the examiners professional assessment)
• in the same scene as above, repeatedly bringing up how her coworkers continually mistakenly say the person is Mexican, despite him being Salvadoran 
•irrelevant added story where a coworker says they should fire bomb the city of San Francisco because it is a “hell pit”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Car accident, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infertility, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Ableism, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide, Terminal illness, Abortion, Blood, Dementia, Racism, Addiction, and Child death

rhi_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

3.5

A frank and honest look at the death industry in the US, this book is a Frankenstein’s monster of memoir, manifesto, and general musings on death and mortality that doesn’t shy away from the gory details. If you’ve currently got a newborn baby, I’d recommend skipping the chapter on infant cremation. 

I awarded the book 3.5 because while the subject matter was interesting, the prose was a little over-written and quippy for my taste. The author’s breeziness around morbid topics is a key feature of the book that does benefit the text overall, but there are times when she would have benefited from drawing back a little and letting the actual topic at hand speak for itself instead of trying to cram in a pithy observation or half-hearted joke. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Dementia, Medical trauma, Blood, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Miscarriage

leweylibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

I really, really want to give this 5 stars solely because of how much I enjoyed it and learned from it that I'm going to think about for a long time to come. But there were just a few parts that didn't age well and read as a bit offensive, so those sat funny with me.

Overall this book is a lot of morbid, informative fun! I feel like it's made me think about death and dying in an entirely different way--I already caught myself while watching the new Hunger Games prequel thinking about the dead bodies of the fallen tributes and how decomposed they must have been lol. It also connected some dots for me about past experiences concerning death. I had always thought I was uncomfortable with the first funeral I ever went to just because it was my first funeral, but I think I really was uncomfortable with the unnatural-ness of that funeral, how my great aunt didn't look like her anymore and she didn't look...dead enough to be dead.

I really want an updated version of this book--surely there are more "green" burial options now 10 years later? I also went ahead and put holds on all of the author's other books. Not only do I love the subject matter she focuses on, but I love her writing. She reminds me of Jenny Lawson with how deep and personal she can get but then also crack a weird, inappropriate joke in the next breath lol. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Mental illness and Dementia

Minor: Cancer, Addiction, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, and Chronic illness

ju_harue's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence