Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

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

spookily's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Blood, Child death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Dementia, Drug use, Cancer, Classism, Violence, War, and Addiction

Minor: Sexism, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Car accident, and Excrement

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

samlikesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Excrement, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child death, Suicide, Grief, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug abuse and Dementia

gwendle_vs_literature's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

4.0

A few years ago I would not have made it through this book, but watching Caitlin’s “Ask a Mortician” on YouTube over the past few years prepared me for the honest and sometimes startling way she describes the realities of death. I really enjoyed this book, and I got through it pretty quickly because it was engaging and that made it hard to put down. I can’t recommend it for everyone, as some people might find the frank descriptions of decay and of what happens to bodies in contemporary North-American funeral practices too difficult to get through. In that case I would be more inclined to recommend her second book “From  Here to Eternity” which explores a variety of different cultural practices regarding death from all around the world. That one I can recommend to almost anyone. 

Accidental pairing that I now recommend:

I happened to read this immediately after finishing “As I Lay Dying” — which may seem like I was on a theme, but it was just a coincidental timing of wait lists at the library. However, if you want to compare a factual discussion of death and our rituals surrounding it (past and present) with a classic of American literature on that topic written and set in a time after more modern death “management” (ie embalming and/or quick burials) had taken firm root, but when poverty and a desire to honour the last wishes of the dead lead a family to ignore those conventions, then it’s a pairing I can recommend. Caitlin’s information certainly made Faulkner’s novel more interesting for me by providing extra layers of context. Particularly if you have to read Faulkner for an English class, pairing it with “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” could make it more enjoyable for you, and could also provide some good essay topics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Body horror

Moderate: Child death, Murder, Suicide, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

ashleycmms's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide and Cancer

rtaire's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I love memoirs, but I was pleasantly surprised by how the author interweaves the science, history, and culture of death with her personal experiences. Her writing resonates with my own anxieties about death and points me in a direction of what I might want, where to research, and potentially how to ask for it. Now I want a "good death" and hopefully will learn more in her next book (and/or her YouTube channel).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Cannibalism, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Car accident, Child death, and Death

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

lexa's review against another edition

funny informative

4.25

I feel very mixed in this one. Parts were captivating, other parts I sped up the narration just to move it along. I laughed, I cried. Overall, I would read another book by this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Body shaming, Blood, and Car accident

morbidanatomy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Medical content, Fatphobia, Suicide, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, and Racism

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