Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

59 reviews

tipsyspacedragon's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.5

I had a wonderful time with this book. Caitlin's breadth of experiences and research mesh delightfully with her personality and humour in this piece.
 
I imagine even reading this without prior context, I would still feel depth of connection to the subject, through the experiences shared here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Moderate: Medical content and Gore

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts

weelasswithabook's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.5

CW: graphic descriptions of death, decomposition, body preparation, mentions of baby death and loss, cannibalism, suicide

🌟 Non Fiction
🌟 Popular Science/Autobiographical

This was an interesting read. At surface level, it's a book filled with insights and tidbits of information regarding the life of a crematorium worker. At it's heart, it explores the reckoning of coming to terms with your own mortality and making a difference moving forwards. 

Featuring rather gruesome descriptions of death, the decomposition process and pre-burial/cremation preparations, I'd approach with caution if you have a weak stomach. There's also something triggering about the emotionally detached discussions around disposal of infant remains (although not don't callously, it did deeply affect me in a certain way), but it's relevant to the book itself. 

One thing that jumped out to me and changed my perceptions was CDs lack of judgement. Exploring different cultures post mortem processes, there was no criticisms there, only the acceptance that something that seems so abstract and gruesome to us is part of someone's sacred culture. For example, tribal rituals where cannibalism is involved. Most people would recoil instantly, buy Doughty discusses these rituals with respect and emphasising how this is simply a different cultures practise and how to them, our ideals of cremation and/or preserving corpses would be looked down upon. So I really appreciated that aspect of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cannibalism, Death, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Terminal illness

typingcow's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Moderate: Suicide

maggies's review against another edition

dark funny informative fast-paced

3.0

Really really really heed the content warning at the start of the book. Doughty can be very flippant in her descriptions, and while I understand this to be part of her overall goal of demystifying the death industry, it was at times shocking. I learned a lot, but it was all probably stuff I didn't feel a particular need to learn, so take from that what you will. She is a very entertaining writer, despite the subject matter (or perhaps because of it?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Murder, Medical content, Death of parent, Gore, Child death, Suicide, and Body horror

indieandajean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I'm a massive fan of Caitlin Doughty and the work she is doing through the Order of the Good Death to change the American perspective of death and mourning from our modern moment of hiding and sanitizing death towards a more traditional mourning ritual of home funerals and natural primarily non-embalmed means of body disposal. I'd read her other two books, but had yet to read this one because I was concerned that as her debut publication, it wouldn't contain her strong narrative voice and nonchalance about the details of death.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was untrue and that this book was not only extremely well written, but was the key to understanding why Caitlin's death fascination began and how she used her experiences to start the order. This book is a fantastic piece of memoir, and it is also a great place for the uninitiated to start when learning more about the good death and the ways in which we can begin to challenge the funeral industry as it exists today. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Child death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Addiction, Car accident, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Chronic illness, and Cancer

Minor: Animal death

aquakirst's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma, Classism, Addiction, Gore, and Dementia

Minor: Excrement

spookily's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Blood, Child death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Dementia, Drug use, Cancer, Classism, Violence, War, and Addiction

Minor: Sexism, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Car accident, and Excrement

pixelpigeon's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I've never noticed a lot of our cultural deeply-held beliefs about death, and never thought to challenge them. This book was like stretching a sore muscle. It felt good to lean into the discomfort.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Blood, Child death, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Cancer

pettypierrot's review against another edition

challenging funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Terminal illness

bookish_purrsuits's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Medical content, and Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts