Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die

In Five Words or Less: Your questions about death, answered.

I received this book from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review

BLUF: Very enjoyable Q&A with a coroner detailing just about everything you want to know about the death business.

The Good

The Format:

The Q&A format is perfect for this book. It keeps the text light and allows the readers to know what exactly we are delving into.

Morbid Curiosity, Answered:

Purcell answers your most important questions:

Do you judge hair people? Like a woman with unshaved legs?

Yes.

What's the strangest item you've found in a body?

I found a remote control and a Snickers bar, still in the wrapper, in the fat rolls of a really, really, obese person. It was sort of uncomfortable having to give the remove back to the family. “Um... We found this...”

“Death is something we all know is coming, yet isn't typically embraced”

“This stuff needs to be normalized.”

The Bad

Though the idea of human bodies being stripped naked and dumped out in nature, left to the animals and elements to desecrate, while researchers study the effects may seem horrific (or incredibly awesome depending on what level of mess up you are), there are tangible benefits to this important research taking place.

Favorite Quotes

I hate, hate, hate to watch shows about death investigations on TV. [...] They have unreal expectations and come up with so many “what-ifs” that it makes things ridiculous! It seems like people look at a case and ask, “Do we have DNA?” No. “Well, then, I don't know what else we can possibly do here. Let's add this to the 200,000+ unsolved deaths and we'll come back to it someday if technology advances.” The realist is, the offender for the majority of all unsolved case is listed in the case notes and is usually someone who'd been mentioned or interviewed within the first five days of the investigation.

If nothing else, I hope you read this book and developed a better understanding of how the death industry works and some of the options available to you. I also hope it encourages conversations within your family about your own wishes for after you die, because when your time comes, your family will want nothing more to honor you by granting your final wishes. Don't make it a guessing game