Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

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

54 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

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

burningbeaker's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child death, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

lkliemann's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

aleyajo's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Suicide attempt, and Death

savyelizabeth's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

Minor: Classism and Racism

cmlalonde's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, Cancer, Miscarriage, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

scrummyb's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

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