Reviews

The Seven Ages of Death: A Forensic Pathologist's Journey Through Life by Dr. Richard Shepherd

demicramb's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I read Richard Shepherd's first book which was fantastic and I found this book a great follow up. 

It was very well structured by going through the different ages of deaths. I found the child ages and older people very harrowing and difficult to get through.

Richard Shepherd is a great storyteller and the way he explained his thought process  and logic were easy to understand.

A couple of cases have stuck in the back of mind and I don't think I will ever forget them too!

ellegjoka's review

5.0

incredible… funny and emotional

jessyjessx's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.25

hyukadune's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

violet_moon1's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Very informative but also interesting to the lay person. I found he was very reflective and enjoyed reading how he'd maybe change things in his past. The cases were interesting and I loved that it followed cases with people of all different ages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Medical trauma, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

hurricaneflora's review

informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

linnmatti's review

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

bookietracey's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

sophierebecca98's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I read Dr Richard Shepherd’s first book and I really loved it. I never thought I’d be interested in forensic pathology but it fully captured my attention. When I realised he brought out a second book, I had to read it. I liked the premise with the seven ages of death. It was difficult starting with children though, as you can imagine. There were a lot of interesting cases that had me hooked. I liked that Dr Shepherd talked about how he basically could understand the persons life from his work on the table, he knows these people on the deepest level. It is good to normalise death so I’m glad I’ve read this book. It was difficult reading about elderly deaths for personal reasons, but he spoke about palliative care thoughtfully and this is where life takes us if we are lucky to live so long. I would recommend this book, I think I rushed it so I’d like to go back to chapters to go over it again. It is definitely thought provoking!

esther_richards's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

3.0