Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

This book was exactly what I was looking for especially as a future funeral director. Roach’s writing was very enticing and it was hard to put down this book! The subtle hints of humor took some edge off the morbid topics and had me coming back for more each time I put it down. I’m definitely excited to read more of her books!

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tpal_'s review against another edition

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4.0

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Stiff is the first book I read of Mary Roach's, and I was an immediate fan. I first read it more than fifteen years ago and have continued to recommend it to people since. She takes a taboo topic for her book and makes it approachable, funny, and educational.

Dead bodies have all sorts of potential futures. At a funeral home they can be embalmed, cremated, or dissolved via aquamation. Donated to science, they can work in med school anatomy labs, be subjected to crashes to analyze car and airplane safety, decompose naturally to assist forensic scientists in determining time of death, or be used in surgery continuing education classes.

Roach details the history of dead bodies, including stories on Burke and Hare's murder and grave robbery scheme and the first anatomy classes. She talks about failed whole head transplant operations; body composting; and bullet, bomb, and landmine studies to improve body armor. Her curiosity drives her to ask unexpected and occasionally inappropriate questions.

I think Mary Roach is a fabulous author. I'm glad I reread this fascinating book. She has taught me so much that I likely couldn't learn elsewhere. I can't recommend this highly enough.

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bxtskr's review against another edition

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dark funny informative

3.75

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hanarama's review against another edition

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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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iaraya's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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