Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

All the Living and the Dead: A Personal Investigation Into the Death Trade by Hayley Campbell

8 reviews

kmgard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Animal death and Homophobia

asacco9642's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Body horror, Child death, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Car accident, Chronic illness, Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Suicide, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, War, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

grimmauxillatrix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Everyone knows about funeral directors, some people know about embalmers, but how many people know about pathologist technologists or bereavement midwives? A very good coverage of the overlooked people and positions in the death industry. 

The author reads the audiobook, and the best parts are where she lets her reading get emotional. Otherwise, her voice is flat, like she's reading a paper in front of her class. She doesn't have a bad voice or an annoying nasality or anything, it just gets a little boring sometimes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Excrement, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Death, Medical content, Drug abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Genocide, Car accident, Chronic illness, Infertility, Blood, and Drug use

Minor: Animal death

THIS BOOK DISCUSSES DEATH, DEAD BODIES AND THE AFTERMATH OF DEATH IN EXPLICIT DETAIL. THE SUBJECT IS HEAVY AND TREATED WITH APPROPRIATE GRAVITY AND RESPECT, BUT IT IS VERY DETAILED. IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU CAN HANDLE LISTENING TO AN UPSETTING STORY ABOUT A DEAD BABY, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK

kitausu's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Sometimes funny, often sad and difficult, this was such an amazing read. It absolutely is not for the faint of heart, but if you can, I would highly recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical trauma, Death, Blood, Cancer, War, Car accident, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Violence

burdasnest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

 I was really hoping this book would be a good companion to Stiff by Mary Roach, but the only similarity was the journalistic approach. It was certainly informative, but the author interjected her own experiences and opinions amidst the information more than I would have personally preferred. To me, that just padded the book, and I would have preferred it to be more informative and shorter in that case. The point that we owe gratitude and grace to the unseen death workers is well taken, but I could have been spared the philosophy of the author on how she processes death. It is not humorous, and it's certainly not for anyone squeamish. But at the same time, the author manages to make gore and guts boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Body horror, Gore, Excrement, Grief, Terminal illness, Cancer, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Genocide, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Car accident, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, and Chronic illness

marareading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

3.5 rounded up. I definitely enjoyed this. I am a novice to this genre and topic so this might be skewed based on that alone. Her perspective is what made this book fascinating for me. She paid attention to the people in the fields of study and their reactions and lives, not just the processes (however also amazingly fascinating). <Spoiler> I especially loved at the end when she talked about how every person in every profession was separated and usually took issue with a profession in another step of the process. <Spoiler> Overall this is interesting and enjoyable information for me. I learned a lot. If you enjoy this topic this would be a book to gain not just information, but human perspectives from all sides of the industry deal with death. 

There are VERY heavy triggers in this book, including a chapter focused heavily on child/infant death and the last portion of the book repeating reactions to said chapter. Please read with awareness and self care 💜

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Cancer, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Child death, Classism, Murder, Terminal illness, Gun violence, and Infertility

library_goth's review against another edition

dark emotional informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage and Infertility

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Blood, Death of parent, and Excrement

tea_at_mole_end's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Death, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, Cancer, Addiction, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness