Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

48 reviews

sadgirlsidney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

2.25

NOT what I was expecting but still very interesting. Certainly has me rethinking what I'd like to have done with my remains. I'm glad Body Worlds was mentioned, albeit very breifly, because I went to that exhibit just after high school and have never forgotten that experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Death of parent

lw_69's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Blood

roadki77's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Death, Car accident, and Animal death

bronzemist's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gore, Child death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Vomit

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

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: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Abortion

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

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 death, Death, and Animal cruelty

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

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, Blood, Medical trauma, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death, and Car accident