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hevlav's review
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Animal death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, Gore, Child death, and Death
teganbeesebooks's review against another edition
5.0
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
lmneal87's review
4.75
Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Medical trauma, Car accident, Gore, and Cannibalism
klbreyfogle's review
4.0
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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Animal death
sshabein's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal death and Medical content
misssleepy's review against another edition
3.5
This book has been on my tbr for quite some time. It was very entertaining, yet still very dark and often time grotesque. I do think that it allowed me to reframe some of my assumptions about life, death, and what it means to inhibit a body. I was very intrigued but the latter chapters, especially the section on human composting.
Mary approaches the book with humor and a lightness in style that makes digesting ther information more palatable. It’s very unique and as someone who enjoys dark humor, I appreciated the way she could soften some of the darkness of the subjects being discussed.
I think my biggest critique is that there were some parts that felt a bit racist, specifically towards Chinese people. She did a lot to research/debunk myths surrounding Chinese practices such as eating dogs and cannibalism. While she did manage to address stereotypes, it just felt off-putting to even focus on some of them.
I was also disappointed that the book didn’t touch on some of the ways white people have used racism to justify the desecration of black and brown bodies.
Overall, I learned a lot and would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic. I will also just note that this book was written in the early 2000s. I think if it were written today, that some of my fore mentioned issues might be more likely to be addressed.
Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Body horror
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
3.5
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
jhaverinen's review
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Animal death
bitter_critter's review
3.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Minor: Child death