Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

35 reviews

teganbeesebooks's review against another edition

funny informative fast-paced

5.0

I would be interested to see an updated edition with how practices have changed in the last 21 years. Super informative and I'm looking forward to reading her other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Child death, Excrement, Gore, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Vomit

klbreyfogle's review

dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was an interesting read! I listened as an audiobook which was fine for the most part but having someone tell you about mellified man directly into your ears is a little jarring. It’s now a little old so if you regularly consume mortuary content (a la Ask a Mortician/Caitlin Doughty) a fair amount will be familiar, but it’s still very informative and the tone is pretty funny, so overall a good read.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Excrement, Abortion, and Terminal illness

teafrog's review against another edition

challenging funny informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death

wandering_canuck's review

funny informative medium-paced

3.5

This is my second reading of the book and I found it less intriguing than previously. Roach is a good writer who is adept at delivering death in a way that is neither too depressing nor too blasé. Not for the faint hearted, but even those to whom the idea of death is a bit "icky" will find this a compelling and lighthearted read. I believe I previously rated this 5 stars; my reduced rating is likely due to it being a reread. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Car accident, Child death, Medical trauma, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, and Death

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3.5

Wasn't expecting a chapter to cover cannibalism so I guess that's where my squeamish line lies in the sand.  I knew some of the info about modern bioethics, and in contrast the historical ethics that were lacking respect, consent, and autonomy, so I was glad to hear that it is an emphasis in cadaver labs.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death of parent, Excrement, Fatphobia, Medical content, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Trafficking, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Body horror, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Torture, and Confinement

halfcrispyduck's review

dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, and Gore

bitter_critter's review

funny informative slow-paced

3.25

It wasn't really my thing. I liked learning but by the end I just finished it to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Child death

eggboybee's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative medium-paced

5.0

I loved this, but I knew I was going to, because I've watched interviews with the author.

Stiff was shockingly funny and beautifully written. Mary Roach was incredibly detailed and sensitive to her difficult subject matter, while staying engaging and down-to-earth. I imagine that I'll be returning to this book often.

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Content Warnings

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

librarianeno's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

3.75

This book was both disgusting and yet oddly satisfying and informative. There is very vivid description of dead bodies and cadavers and of what people do with dead bodies and cadavers. But I learned a lot about the death industry. I love Mary Roach's writing style. This book was written in 2003, so I'm going to be doing some research on what is happening with the composting of cadavers. There's also a discussion of a flesh-eating bacteria as a way of composting humans I want to know if it has developed more or gone by the wayside. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

yetilibrary's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative sad slow-paced

2.5

I needed to read a book on a subject I knew nothing about. Cue Mary Roach's book about cadavers! The good: I did learn a lot about cadavers, and about science done with cadavers. The bad: sometimes there was an ick factor, and about half the time, the "ick" factor was an ethical one, rather than a body-horror one. The "more bad": there are a lot more animals in here than I was expecting, and a lot of those animals are ... not cadavers. Honestly, I wish I had picked a different book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, and Gore

Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Murder