Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

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

32 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

alicroz34's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book is full of really excellent, extremely dark information. It does, however, very much read like someone's first book. It hits its stride after the first quarter or so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Blood, Addiction, Miscarriage, Dementia, Cannibalism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racial slurs, Addiction, Sexism, Racism, and Misogyny

cmlalonde's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Highly recommend this book to fans of the YouTube channel 'Ask a Mortician' or just anyone a little bit curious about death.
Caitlin tackles dark topics unapologetically and with a sense of humour.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, Cancer, Miscarriage, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

dragonterriers's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Miscarriage, and Child death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

dragonwithapen's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

There were some parts in the book that I feel like could have been treated with more care and thought behind it? But all around it was a great book that made a point to make you question your own mortality. Not your normal beach read, for sure! Still, a very enjoyable time :3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Miscarriage

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

rhi_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

3.5

A frank and honest look at the death industry in the US, this book is a Frankenstein’s monster of memoir, manifesto, and general musings on death and mortality that doesn’t shy away from the gory details. If you’ve currently got a newborn baby, I’d recommend skipping the chapter on infant cremation. 

I awarded the book 3.5 because while the subject matter was interesting, the prose was a little over-written and quippy for my taste. The author’s breeziness around morbid topics is a key feature of the book that does benefit the text overall, but there are times when she would have benefited from drawing back a little and letting the actual topic at hand speak for itself instead of trying to cram in a pithy observation or half-hearted joke. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Dementia, Medical trauma, Blood, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Miscarriage

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

briar_nettleroot's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Miscarriage

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Grief, Car accident, and Racism

tibbarasden's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death