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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
dark
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
funny
informative
fast-paced
I love Mary’s writing. She tells stories about interesting topics that are usually taboo or people find repulsive. I’d be lying if I said some of these stories didn’t make me squeamish, especially when it comes to the testing done on animals. However, the information I learned outweighs any discomfort. 10/10 read.
funny
informative
reflective
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I like reading about medical history and sometimes that veers into the more morbid stories; I was fascinated by this book from the moment I found it. The author combines several perspectives around the human cadaver, making up for an interesting roundup. I learned a lot from this! I also liked how it reflected on the language used around the bodies, their parts and what happened to them; interestingly, this tends to differ from profession to profession.
I preferred the first three chapters, that covered research purposes around surgery, anatomy and decomposing. Maybe because they came closest to what I expected from this. Maybe, because firing bullets at a cadaver isn’t all that interesting anymore after reading about gory body farms. And maybe, because at some point in this book it was barely about human cadavers anymore. Somewhere halfway, the testing on animals really got out of hand and it appeared the author relished in providing all details. Although I knew of some of these examples, having recently read a different story on (the history of) organ donation, the approach here was a bit much for my vegan ass. Also no longer really enjoyed the jokes, because cruel experiments like attaching an extra head to an already complete dog aren’t really funny to me (this was supposed to be about human cadavers, not living animals). I was happy to move on from this part of the book and diving into getting rid of our remains.
So although I would have preferred at some points to focus more on the human body than on some of the exact details of what preceded it all, I was still intrigued by a lot of it. The research done for this is elaborate, including lots of literature and field work by the author, and for most of it the style added a nice touch, to keep this from being either too dry or scientific. It’s an old one tho, I wonder what updates could be added in the +20 years since this has been first published (I read the 2003 edition but if I understand correctly the 2021 one only differs in epilogue?).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder
Minor: Grief, Abortion
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
This was a fun one! The humor and yet respect that Mary treats the taboo subject of death and cadavers is respectable. To go face to face with one of the most terrifying aspects of being human, and greeting it with a sensitive yet humorous tone is what makes this book stand out. Loved it!
Really really fascinating. Affirmed my desire to be composted when I die lol.
The chapter about cannibalism was super interesting. The chapter about decapitation was making me a bit queasy though so skip that one if you’re of a certain constitution.
Looking forward to checking out more of the author’s books; I loved her humor
The chapter about cannibalism was super interesting. The chapter about decapitation was making me a bit queasy though so skip that one if you’re of a certain constitution.
Looking forward to checking out more of the author’s books; I loved her humor
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Cannibalism