Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

243 reviews

nikenacs's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.75

I picked this up not thinking much of it, both because I'd had a recent death in my family and because my local library was offering the e-book. And man, I'm so happy I read this. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did, I was INTO IT.

The ins and outs of the crematorium are interesting enough, but the true strength of this book is in its reflections on our society's attitude towards death. Absolutely 10/10 on that front. As someone who has had little to no contact with death in my personal life, this gave me a lot to think about. 

Very US-centric, which is not a bad thing, but instead made me very curious to research how the funeral industry works in Germany, and Western Europe in general. 

A tad superficial at times, oftentimes a chapter ended just when I felt like we were really getting into it. I appreciate that it combined more light-hearted personal memoir elements with philosophy and history as well as politics, but it could have been a tad more of the latter for my taste. 

But all in all, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this opened my eyes on how we treat both our dead and our dying.  Will be recommending, will be checking out more of Doughty's work. 

(And on a personal note, I knew I was right when I wanted to set up my testament and funeral wishes when I was in elementary school! Take that, parents.) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Moderate: Cancer, Violence, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, and Abortion

inthemoonlight's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Car accident, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Cannibalism

emoopossum's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Death

angorarabbit's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

Context:  I have been following Ms Doughty’s YouTube channel for a few years now, it’s about time I read her first book. 

 

This is mainly a memoir and I am not qualified to judge Ms Doughty’s life. Her writing style is bright and breezy even when talking about serious things. That is not to say that she makes light of her topics, she absolutely does not. She sounds like the type of funeral director I wish my mother had talked to when choosing the casket for my grandfather. 

 

There has been many deaths in my life, human and non-human animals. And I have been watching the videos so the message of the book was something I was familiar with already. I can see that it would be very helpful for those who are having their first encounter with the US funeral industry. 

 

One of my fears about death is the mess someone or other will have to clean up. I would be happy if my cats could eat not just my eyeballs but the rest of me as well, leaving a nice clean skeleton to put in some anatomy lab somewhere. While it does not seem like putting bodies in the forest for the bear, wolf, and mountain lion to consume willt be feasible (at least not legally) in the near future, I hope  Ms Doughty and others will make a future in the US where loved ones are not pressured to go into debt while their grief is still fresh and where everyone can grieve as they need too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Suicide, Dementia, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Car accident

Graphic descriptions of the process of cremation, embalming, and other funeral practices.

anushareflects's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

A unique first person POV on what it is like to work at a crematory with (often graphic) details of dead bodies including details on embalming, cremation, etc. The book focuses on death rituals broadly but follows the author’s own journey as someone who has worked in a mortuary for several years. Definitely interesting, but not for people who feels squeamish at descriptions of death or dead bodies. The author’s writing is engaging but she tries too hard to make jokes or be poetic which gets exhausting after a point. But still definitely worth reading. The Audible version is narrated by the author and her voice is a little annoying but overall clear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

lilshorty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

rstegema's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

veeples's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This has been one of my favorite reads all year, hands down. I’ve followed Caitlin Doughty on her YouTube channel for years and I’m so glad I got around to listening to this book. Caitlin’s humor shines through that adds a bit of lightness to such heavy material, but not inappropriately so. I enjoyed seeing her journey in her relationship to death and her reflections on others’ who appear in the book and their own relationship with death. I’ve always had an appreciation for what she stands for in regards to agency in dying and opening up a conversation about death, and reading this has only deepened that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident, Dementia, Abortion, Cancer, and Cannibalism

nialystic's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicide, Gore, Child death, Body horror, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Fatphobia and Suicidal thoughts

iloponis's review against another edition

3.0

kind of delightful and also disgusting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Gore