Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Non-Fiction

Roach tackles an interesting subject in writing Stiff, a novel about the use of human cadavers. For those that donate their bodies to science once they die, what becomes of them? How can our lives be bettered by research with the use of cadavers? Roach tackles everything from organ donation to crash test dummies to cannibalism.

There's really only two ways this subject can be approached. Either seriously or with a bit of humour. Though there may be some worry that people could be offended if written with humour, I was happy to see that it had. I enjoyed Roach's sense of humor and her enthusiastic curiosity. She asked questions that I would never dare to ask but was still wondering about in the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, I found this book got a little less interesting as it started to wrap up. Roach seems to stray from subject a bit as the book comes to a close, specifically in the medicinal chapter.

Overall I enjoyed this book and the fact that the subject matter was so different than anything else. There was, however, a bit of overlap between this book and Death's Acre by Bill Bass where Roach talks about the body farm and a case that Bass also talked about in his book.

First Line: "The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship."

Rating:

(4/5)