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A review by xangemthelibrarian
All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This was such an informative and thorough look at the death industry. I shudder to describe this part of our lives an "industry," but that's what it is. It's what I felt when my mother dragged me around to funeral homes to plan my dad's funeral.
I began to get curious about death and medicine when my dad was put on hospice. My mother begged me to not read Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty because one chapter described the process of embalming. I read only that one chapter out of spite because I was an adult and she couldn't control what I decided to read. I'm still glad I did read that chapter.
I tell that story because if you're like me, knowing is what brings you comfort. Solving the mystery. Being able to understand the processes that happen behind the scenes. Death is one of the things that society deems taboo to be curious about. Which is so stupid because death is a part of every single life that will ever come to exist.
I'm so grateful for Campbell. I'm grateful for her attention to detail and her ability to talk about this "taboo" subject. I'm grateful for the way she talked about how encountering death over and over and over again changed her. Her journey to write this book impacted her in the same way that first responders and medical personnel are affected by the tragedies they face daily. And inexplicably, I felt closer to my dad while listening to this book.
Maybe someday I will have the courage to try to meet death the same way Hayley Campbell has in this book. Maybe this is the closest I will get until my body dies. But either way knowledge is power and solace in a person like me, who is terrified of the unknown more than anything else.
I began to get curious about death and medicine when my dad was put on hospice. My mother begged me to not read Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty because one chapter described the process of embalming. I read only that one chapter out of spite because I was an adult and she couldn't control what I decided to read. I'm still glad I did read that chapter.
I tell that story because if you're like me, knowing is what brings you comfort. Solving the mystery. Being able to understand the processes that happen behind the scenes. Death is one of the things that society deems taboo to be curious about. Which is so stupid because death is a part of every single life that will ever come to exist.
I'm so grateful for Campbell. I'm grateful for her attention to detail and her ability to talk about this "taboo" subject. I'm grateful for the way she talked about how encountering death over and over and over again changed her. Her journey to write this book impacted her in the same way that first responders and medical personnel are affected by the tragedies they face daily. And inexplicably, I felt closer to my dad while listening to this book.
Maybe someday I will have the courage to try to meet death the same way Hayley Campbell has in this book. Maybe this is the closest I will get until my body dies. But either way knowledge is power and solace in a person like me, who is terrified of the unknown more than anything else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Gore
Specifically, the things that hurt this author the most was seeing a dead baby. If that's a trigger for you, consider the strength you have to tackle a book that does not mince words about autopsies and death.