Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

12 reviews

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

random19379's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Gore, Body horror, and Vomit

Moderate: Racism and Classism

ren_the_hobbit's review against another edition

They are mostly historical but lots of experiments on animals this book talks about are very cruel and hard to listen to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal death

Moderate: Violence

bardspeak's review

challenging informative medium-paced

3.5

It got a little gross for me halfway through. Also I find some of the actions of past humans morally awful. But it was a good informative book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Gore

Moderate: Violence, Cannibalism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, and Excrement

Minor: Racism

It's a lot but often in a lighthearted or at least neutral/informative way.

kearydeary's review

informative fast-paced

2.0

I really liked the first 3/4th of the book, but it gets really racist about China in chapter 10. like. bad enough that I now don’t really think I can recommend this to anyone…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Body horror, Blood, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Cannibalism, Excrement, and Abortion

vale_reading's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Cannibalism, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia and War

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

besidemyshelf's review against another edition

funny informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Medical trauma, and Medical content

booksbyantheia's review

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

This is an excellent book. It does indeed lose some of its rhythms in the second half, but it's still very interesting. I enjoyed it, even on the parts I was grossed out!

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Content Warnings

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

shieldbearer's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

at time comedic at times reflective and somber, this is an excellent read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Classism, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Violence

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