Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, #partner, for an advanced copy of All the Living and the Dead in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio
Published: April 12, 2022
Summary:
A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there.
We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?
Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.
Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.
My thoughts:
This might seem like an odd book to want to read, but when you read so many thrillers and crime fiction, death comes up a lot and when I saw this, I was immediately intrigued! And let me just say, it was such a captivating read!!!
From start to finish, I was totally engaged, and loved how the author handled the topics she covered in this book. I realize this book is definitely not for everyone, but for those that might be interested, know that she explores everything with incredible depth and sensitivity. It’s a fact that death is part of all our lives, whether we like it or not. We may choose to ignore it, but many of us are oddly fascinated by it and if you are one of those, this book is definitely for you. It is so thought-provoking and will have you looking at things in a completely new light.
I think what struck me the most is that we have a lot of preconceived notions about death and this book challenges that. The author doesn’t do it in a smug way, but rather in a way that will allow you to come to appreciate those who work in the death industry. I also learned there are many differences in the way death is handled from country to country.
I’m so glad I requested this book and I definitely recommend you picking it up if you have any interest in exploring this area. It’s well-written and well-researched.
Audio thoughts:
I alternated between the audio and the print, and I loved that the author narrated this one. She really was able to effectively get her point across and I found it to be quite easy to listen to.
