Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty

39 reviews

leweylibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

I really, really want to give this 5 stars solely because of how much I enjoyed it and learned from it that I'm going to think about for a long time to come. But there were just a few parts that didn't age well and read as a bit offensive, so those sat funny with me.

Overall this book is a lot of morbid, informative fun! I feel like it's made me think about death and dying in an entirely different way--I already caught myself while watching the new Hunger Games prequel thinking about the dead bodies of the fallen tributes and how decomposed they must have been lol. It also connected some dots for me about past experiences concerning death. I had always thought I was uncomfortable with the first funeral I ever went to just because it was my first funeral, but I think I really was uncomfortable with the unnatural-ness of that funeral, how my great aunt didn't look like her anymore and she didn't look...dead enough to be dead.

I really want an updated version of this book--surely there are more "green" burial options now 10 years later? I also went ahead and put holds on all of the author's other books. Not only do I love the subject matter she focuses on, but I love her writing. She reminds me of Jenny Lawson with how deep and personal she can get but then also crack a weird, inappropriate joke in the next breath lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Mental illness and Dementia

Minor: Cancer, Addiction, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, and Chronic illness

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

u_0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I'm at a loss to describe how important this book is. It should be required reading for all humans. Caitlin, I love you : )

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, and Animal death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

charlottedow's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Not for the faint of heart (or stomach) but an incredible exploration of the death industry in America and the concept of death positivity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, and Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

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

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

oliverreeds's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Dementia, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

asiaasiaja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Car accident, Medical content, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Grief, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Excrement, Classism, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Vomit, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Sexism, and Dementia

Minor: Fatphobia, Cursing, Colonisation, Body shaming, Xenophobia, and Cancer

specificwonderland's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

Liked the writing and narration. The topics stayed somewhat surface level. The end turned into a textbook or philosophical exercise. It was like the first 3/4 was saying, "Ewwww isn't this wild?" and the last 1/4 was about the future of the funeral industry and how we do/should/could view mortality. It was ok. I also added a few trigger warnings to larger bodies. I thought the scene felt a little (more accurately "moderately") judgey/predatory. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Medical content, Death, and Body shaming