Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

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

12 reviews

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”

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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

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. 

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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

indieandajean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I'm a massive fan of Caitlin Doughty and the work she is doing through the Order of the Good Death to change the American perspective of death and mourning from our modern moment of hiding and sanitizing death towards a more traditional mourning ritual of home funerals and natural primarily non-embalmed means of body disposal. I'd read her other two books, but had yet to read this one because I was concerned that as her debut publication, it wouldn't contain her strong narrative voice and nonchalance about the details of death.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was untrue and that this book was not only extremely well written, but was the key to understanding why Caitlin's death fascination began and how she used her experiences to start the order. This book is a fantastic piece of memoir, and it is also a great place for the uninitiated to start when learning more about the good death and the ways in which we can begin to challenge the funeral industry as it exists today. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Child death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Addiction, Car accident, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Chronic illness, and Cancer

Minor: Animal death

oliverreeds's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Dementia, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

ssarahbbeth's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

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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

printingbetweenthepages's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I stumbled upon this book as a recommended read from Booktube, although I can’t remember who it was that recommended it, I’m glad that they did! Morbid, but incredibly interesting and educational with a level of intrigue that made this a fast-listen (I chose the audiobook version to read). This first-hand account of experiences working in a mortuary was eye opening and done in a way that respected the dead and the processes that happen once one is deceased. Society, myself included, often skirts around the issue of death and what happens to us after death (not in a religious sense, in a physical sense). Personally, I feel that it’s the unknown that bothers us, and this book answers a lot of those unknowns. I really enjoyed learning about the historical events that took place over time that impacted how the dead where “handled” and how history and the changing beliefs over time have changed the mortuary business. Probably not the book for all, but those with a scientific background or interest in how things work, while being able to handle the subject matter, will find this book an enjoyable peek into the mysteries of death and mortuaries…and I have to say after learning about the topic it’s a lot less terrifying! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Chronic illness, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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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

camsara99's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Chronic illness, and Gore

stevie's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Fatphobia, Excrement, Drug use, Death, Chronic illness, Child death, and Cancer

kb_sherman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail