Panthergirl reviewed All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell
A Truly Remarkable Read
5 stars
This book is unforgettable. The first several chapters are fascinating and even funny, as the author experiences several death-related jobs first-hand from funeral director to executioner to crime scene cleanup guy. She’s remarkably unflinching in both her reaction to being up close and personal with this work, and in her description of it. But then things change when she experiences something in an autopsy room involving a baby. It’s not the autopsy itself, but something worse. To help process her reaction, she seeks out and spends time with a bereavement midwife. Both of these chapters are VERY difficult to read. Thankfully she ends the book on a more upbeat note and the last line of the afterword made me laugh out loud.