Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Неприродні випадки. Нотатки судмедексперта в 34 розтинах by Richard Shepherd, Анна Дученко

18 reviews

heyitsashleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Unnatural Causes tells the life story of Dr Richard Shepherd, an experienced forensic pathologist. The book describes a lot of past cases of Dr Shepherd's, many of which are very harrowing and sad, including cases of infanticide, femicide and deaths as a result of police brutality, mass homicide or man-made disasters. It also covers some famous cases such as the deaths of Stephen Lawrence, Rachel Nickell and Princess Diana. As you can imagine, this work took a huge toll on Dr Shepherd's mental health and personal life, and this is covered in the book too. 

I found this book to be a really interesting insight into lots of things - the workings of the human body for one, and the process of a post-mortem and the work of pathologists. But I also found it interesting in its descriptions of how some of the systematic failures we have experienced (and continue to experience) in society have contributed to the deaths of many people. How lack of training on how to safely restrain people has led to police officers suffocating detainees (including the part race plays in this); how previously held attitudes towards child protection issues have led to the unexplained deaths of babies being largely ignored, meaning parents go on to inflict abuse on future children; and how human error and lack of adequate safety procedures has led to hundreds of people being killed in transport disasters. 

Overall I enjoyed this book. I found it a bit too graphic and technical in parts, but I found it really thought provoking on a lot of important topics. Also I love a good murder mystery so that element came into play throughout which was great! 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, and Chronic illness

Minor: Self harm and Vomit

katiej's review against another edition

emotional informative sad fast-paced

4.5

Interesting and intriguing book. Learnt lots and enjoyed the stories. Some sad parts and very well known cases which really fascinated me 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident, Blood, and Body horror

ymer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical content, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Self harm

aliceloyallaleon's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Suicide, Sexual violence, Stalking, Self harm, Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Car accident, Cancer, Blood, and Addiction

caitlin_43's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

bethsbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

sheryl_macca's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Categorising this book is complicated for the best of reasons. It is more than just a memoir. Unnatural Causes is a blend of personal reflection on marriage, fatherhood, mental health and on achievement and career success. It is a blend of true crime, science and recent historical events. It's written with honesty, openness and admiration for colleagues and personal heroes. It's written with great respect for the dead, their families, his own family and for procedure and justice. Unnatural Causes is absolutely fascinating.

Dr Richard Shepherd was a/the pathologist in a variety of well known cases; Joy Gardner, Stephen Lawrence, Lady Diana, Dr Harold Shipman, Derrick Bird. He was also a/the pathologist in a variety of major incidents; 9/11, Hungerford, terrorist attacks by Osama Bin Laden.

Dr Richard Shepherd was also instrumental, pivotal even, in the development of life saving policy and procedures regarding London's major incident plans and the safe restraint of people in custody.

Dr Richard Shepherd is also a calming force, a courageous and quiet man with a great sense of responsibility. He'saa man who admits his mistakes. He's a man who lives with PTSD, panic attacks and who isn't afraid to let the reader in.

Unnatural Causes is gripping, emotional, interesting and informative. It is macabre in parts and there are challenging sections but it's thoroughly enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Hate crime

Minor: Infidelity

sophieduncan's review against another edition

dark emotional informative slow-paced

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Suicide, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Terrorism - content warning