burningbeaker's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0


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lkliemann's review against another edition

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funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0


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aleyajo's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Reminds me of Stiff but more of a memoir. Likable author. Thoughtful perspective on the death industry. 


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savyelizabeth's review against another edition

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

3.5


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cmlalonde's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Highly recommend this book to fans of the YouTube channel 'Ask a Mortician' or just anyone a little bit curious about death.
Caitlin tackles dark topics unapologetically and with a sense of humour.

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scrummyb's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Phew, this book is not for the faint hearted. Absolutely fantastic read, would recommend 100%, but with a cautionary warning. In my opinion, this book is mainly about two things: the actual nitty gritty (which will definitely have you gagging and shuddering) of death of the body, and an examination of rituals (or lack thereof in American society) around death. I made my way through this book with equal parts melancholy and also hopefulness. Hopeful about a new way to view death and how I can pay honor to it for both a loved one and myself. It's not only an informative read, but an entertaining one. The author tells her own story detailing her fascination with death (including her own suicidal thoughts), that reads funny, honest, and thought provoking. If you do decide to read this, be prepared that she discusses in detail what happens to all deceased bodies, including babies, suicides, violent deaths, and bodies donated to science. So if you're not ready to face that reality, I would hold off. Expect also some dark humor, that some might find crass, but I found appropriate considering the author's line of work.

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cadence99's review against another edition

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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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rhi_reading's review against another edition

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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. 

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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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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indieandajean's review against another edition

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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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