Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Die fabelhafte Welt der Leichen by Mary Roach, Michaela Grabinger

54 reviews

dustylola's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book had a lot of interesting info and I liked the writing style. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

Minor: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

becphe's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

I appreciated the lack of squeamishness in discussing what happens to bodies that are donated to science and how the system works.  I learned a lot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, and Cannibalism

bigkidbookworm's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

This was a reread for me and it’s just as great as I remember! If you have a strong stomach and want to be that person at the party who has way too many fun facts about dead things, I highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

stephanieridiculous's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

Overall this was a fascinating read and I'm glad I picked it up. Aside from making me queasy a few times, there were a few parts I didn't particularly care for such as essentially making a joke out of the harmful stereotype about China and dogs, and with describing early colonial settlers. A few jokes absolutely failed to land as well, but I suppose humor is very subjective.

My biggest gripe with this book, though, is the chapter on crucifixion experiments. While all the other chapters have lengthy bibliographies and reference a plethora of resources, this chapter is woefully insufficient. It seems like Roach phoned this one in for the shock factor of it's inclusion and failed to give it the same level of respect and research her other topics received. And adjacent to that, the chapter I was most hesitant to read, about cannibalism, was mostly unsubstantiated rumors turned into more shock factor fluff, seemingly just to get you to read/be grossed out/I dunno what.

Despite all that, I learned a lot and have much to consider about my own future cadaver and what should be done with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

bxtskr's review against another edition

dark funny informative

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

hanarama's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

Book at a glance:
• Science
• Non-fiction 
• Single topic
• Conversational 

In Stiff, Mary Roach investigates our relationship to human corpses. Through history and into modern day, Roach explores how we feel about dead bodies as well as how they have helped us advance science and medicine. 

I love non-fiction books focusing on single topics or phenomena, and this is no exception. Though lacking in a narrative, Roach allows the subject matter to work as a throughline through the chapters, creating a sense of cohesion as the book moves from donated bodies in anatomy labs, to crash tests, and to some truly horrifying mad science. 

Roach's conversational writing makes Stiff easily digestible. It's a fast and easy read, and often feels as though an acquaintance is sharing this information with you over coffee. 

Perhaps my only gripe is that Roach lets personal opinion color some of the chapters on alternative burial. Outside of the decapitation/head transplant chapter, this is the only time it feels like Roach is uncomfortable. Today more people are thinking about their death wishes and considering alternative burial, and I feel like Roach was a bit dismissive towards these methods. If we're going to be death positive, we should be more open to different methods of internment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Car accident

antmahn's review against another edition

funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is absolutely one of my favorite books I’ve read to date. It’s morbid, fascinating, and funny. It takes what some consider a terrifying question, “what happens to you when you die?” and expands it to encompass questions you didn’t even know you had. What actually happens to your body if you donate it to science? How did we advance our knowledge of the human body when dissections were frowned upon? Are there more environmentally-friendly ways to dispose of your body? How has cannibalism been condoned throughout history? If you have a morbid sense of curiosity, I would 110% recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Cannibalism

Personally, the only part I really struggled through was the topic of transplantation experiments on animals. Other than that, the book’s descriptions really let you know what kind of topics you’re getting into with this book.

gryflette's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

toobendy's review against another edition

lighthearted slow-paced

3.0

You need to have a certain kind of comedy to write jokes about death and this author doesn’t have it. I think I thought a single joke was kind of funny. It would have been more enjoyable if she just told me about the body farm like an adult instead of a preteen seeing something icky for the first time. She’s a journalist ffs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Medical trauma

emtur007's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Car accident