Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

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

26 reviews

kb_sherman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

I saw many of my concerns and thoughts about death reflected and answered in this book, and I was given lots more to ponder. Caitlin has a way of writing these things nonchalantly and straight to the facts, while mantaining an engaging and eerie, reflective vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Cancer, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Trafficking

zarazim's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Fatphobia, and Gore

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

ha1yan's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Dementia, and Car accident

Minor: Gun violence and Misogyny

Detailed descriptions of corpses in various stages of decomposition

marisa_n's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

Not for the faint-hearted. This book is a mashup of memoir, politics, science, and history--all related to death, cadavers, and death rituals. This book follows the author's life as she explores her relationship with death, it gives you a peak into her day-to-day life as a mortician, and it her includes her thoughts on death rituals.

I found the information about the day-to-day operations of a crematory interesting and informative. Some of the discussions on culture and politics were also good food for thought. Overall, I learned a great deal while reading this. I also thought the author handled the subject matter respectfully, without making it dry/boring. 

However, as interesting as the subject matter was, I disliked the writing style. I found the storytelling to be jarring, and the transitions non-existent. Her life story is told in a linear fashion, but she consistently breaks into lengthy side tangents (about culture, politics, etc.) that are only tangentially related to the current subject at hand. There also seemed to be little rhyme or reason to her storytelling-- in one sentence she's talking about her day, and the next she's talking about cannibalism. I found these conversational leaps frustrating, as it made it hard to stay engaged in the story. While her main point was clear--we need to become more comfortable with death and re-evaluate our current death rituals--she never truly connected these side-tangents to her thesis. 

Overall, informative read, but it could have benefited from a good editor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Dementia

rileyreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Addiction