Reviews tagging 'Grief'

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

31 reviews

miss_magenta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Murder, and Cancer

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

smblanc1793's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

I like the way this book balances humor and truth, the graphic reality of death across the spectrum of industries, but also the philosophies that inform and help people cope with each one. The depictions of grief in this book are in some ways more grotesque to me than the descriptions of bodies, more raw and visceral. The author’s voice itself added a lot to the impact; though the book’s essence was informative, the profound effect its research had on her was one of the things that really struck a cord with me—one of the things I will remember most clearly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, Genocide, and Grief

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

adventuring_librarian's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Grief

clarabooksit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide, War, Violence, and Pregnancy

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

soobooksalot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

5.0

Death need not be scary or macabre.
 Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my eARC of All The Living And The Dead for review!
 Author and journalist Hayley Campbell takes many slants and sides of the "death industry" and profiles them in the chapters of this book.
 It's most intriguing. 
 I always feel a bit morbid when seeking out reads about death and dying, though it rings true when it's said that knowledge lessens fear.
 We are taken into everything from embalmers to executioners, pathologists performong autopsies, death mask makers to crime scene cleaners and investigators.
 There are so many facets to the inevitable part of life - death and dying - that we may never have considered.
 Campbell's writing is descriptive yet respectful, well-researched, intelligent and readable. The subject matter may not be for everyone, but as an excellent introduction or addition to the topics of death, All The Living And The Dead is a highly recommended read.
 Released on Aug. 16.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Grief