Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

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

6 reviews

harrimyers's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

currently placed at 4.25 but definitely could move to 4.5. a very good, concise overview of both the american death industry, but also how the western world views death in general. the formatting was brilliant and this book has taught me so much about the death industry that i either hadn’t even stopped to consider or hadn’t known at all. it was a very interesting look at how the death industry in america has directly warped people’s views of death and their relationships with their own mortality. doughty’s personal experiences are fascinating, if slightly… concerning at times. her stories from the crematorium were the most engaging part of this book and how the author links these to her past childhood experiences with death and to philosophical and cultural views of death was highly impressive. at times, the tone felt a little too… casual? but i suppose that part of this comes down to doughty’s mission to demistify death and part because this book was made to be engaging to read. however, with this in mind, there was a few instances where this casual tone did do a disservice to her argument, especially in regards to the size of the corpses and her brief dip into her run of the bdsm scene in hawaii. overall, this book was definitely thought provoking and has definitely demistifyed a lot about death for me (coming from someone who often already considers death to be an important thing to be conscious about) as well as making me stop and think very carefully about what i want to happen to me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Child death, and Dementia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Fatphobia

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

cadence99's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

What I liked:
•the discussion of death practices in various cultures 
•the authors personal musings on how best to manage the image and processing of death

What I didn’t like:
•chapters feel a bit disjointed in their themes
•the repeated use of race as a descriptor for ONLY non-white people when it is irrelevant to the narrative of the story being told
•pretty gross anti-fat comments, primarily in one particular section where she talks about her coworker declaring that despite the medical examiners determination to the contrary, the person MUST have died of a heart attack from being so fat and “This is why you can’t be fat!”- in addition to describing in great detail how fat bodies smell worse, but then dismissing the coworkers comments as “just fact” (even though he is literally ignoring fact by assuming the mans cause of death is not the one determined by the examiners professional assessment)
• in the same scene as above, repeatedly bringing up how her coworkers continually mistakenly say the person is Mexican, despite him being Salvadoran 
•irrelevant added story where a coworker says they should fire bomb the city of San Francisco because it is a “hell pit”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Car accident, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infertility, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Ableism, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide, Terminal illness, Abortion, Blood, Dementia, Racism, Addiction, and Child death

maethereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

A very enlightening read! Some of the personal details, like with the love interest, seemed unnecessary and out of place, but I also understand this is a memoir if someone who is in the early 20s. I really appreciated this look inside the death industry, and I learned so much about embalming and cremation, and the history of both. I will definitely be looking into green/natural options for myself and my loved ones. Hearing the stories of death, or more like dead bodies, definitely helped me understand this topic which is so hidden in modern life. I feel so much more prepared and grateful to have read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, and Child death

Minor: Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Cancer, Car accident, and Terminal illness

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Very intriguing, well written book. Pretty graphic but not for shock value. Caitlin writes about death and the things that she saw working in a crematory in a very matter of fact way that made it so interesting to learn about. Weaving in historical pieces on death practices in different cultures and throughout history was fascinating too. 

There was a pretty abrupt and random chapter with some, in my opinion, unnecessary fatphobic themes, but other than that I really enjoyed the process of reading this book and thinking about death myself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, Suicide, Body horror, Death of parent, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Child death, Cannibalism, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, and Drug use

mermaidsherbet's review

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Vomit, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Excrement

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Body shaming, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

ha1yan's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Animal death, Miscarriage, Blood, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Dementia, Car accident, and Cancer

Minor: Misogyny and Gun violence

Detailed descriptions of corpses in various stages of decomposition