Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Viața secretă a cadavrelor by Mary Roach, Gabriel Tudor

38 reviews

a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

2.0

The science is really interesting but super traumatizing at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

leanneymu's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

If you're squeamish, this is not the book for you. But if you can get past chapter 3 (decomposition) then this is a fascinating and funny read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Gore

bronzemist's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

Minor: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

sophiemartin's review against another edition

This book is a non-fiction account of an author exploring the different ways a human body donated to science can be used. The information in the book is incorrect, the humour while talking about graphic topics is jarring, and it is clear the author has not done their research correctly and throughly. I could not spend any more time reading the blatant disregard for fact checking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

nahanarts's review against another edition

funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Death

tpal_'s review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Excrement, Cannibalism, and Car accident

Minor: Abortion

jenmcvay's review against another edition

informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death

solenodon's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Excrement, Cannibalism, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide