Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

37 reviews

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

annajoyreed93's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Death, Child death, Cancer, Medical content, Murder, and Blood

brittbottoms's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Violence, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Suicide, Excrement, and Car accident

c410berry's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Murder

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

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

An extraordinarily powerful look at the multiple parts of the death industry, from the person who picks up the body to the one who does the autopsy to the one who dresses the corpse and closes the coffin to the one who digs the grave. Two bits really stuck with me: the man who made sure all original parts were back with the proper body after students and doctors worked on them, and the bereavement midwife. 

I think it must have been especially difficult for the author to see the massive deaths from COVID just when she’d finished writing all but the afterword. 

This book and many of its details have stayed with me - I keep thinking of it. To me that’s the sign of a great book, one that’s really thought provoking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, Child death, Gore, and Pregnancy

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

jackybrooke's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content

Minor: Child death and Miscarriage

brekkerbarnes's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Gore, and Medical content