Five star review, originally posted here on September 30th, 2024.
I’ve been having one of those common slumps where absolutely nothing I read is drawing me in. Like… everything is ok, but there’s nothing where I just can’t wait to jump back in. Thankfully that slump ended with Smoke Get in Your Eyes. For the first half, I was thinking “YES! Finally! I can’t wait to read more!” This book is just the right balance of everything I needed to hear right now. It’s got unique subject matter. It’s got a great mix of amusing personal anecdotes with tons of fascinating facts. It walks a fine line of balancing humor without detracting from the serious subject matter. I was absolutely spellbound.
The book does drop off, though, when Doughty leaves the crematorium. We start talking about a crush she has in her personal life, which at first seems completely unrelated to anything else and takes the reader out of things. Eventually it becomes clear that the reason we’re sharing this story is because she became suicidal after her crush rejects her, which brings up another opportunity to talk about death (you know, the topic of the book.) I kind of got what she was going for here, but tonally it just didn’t quite fit for some reason. Afterwards the book doesn’t quite fully recover (though it does pick back up some), to the point that really this might be more like a 4.5 star review.
BUT… I’m still giving this 5 stars because that is how much I loved the vast majority of it. Sometimes the right book comes along at the right time, and I really really needed this book right now. It’s a time when I’m thinking a lot about the end of life, and all that serious topic entrails. Hearing Doughty discuss it all so openly brought me a lot of solace. As she says herself, in her experience people in mourning seem grateful when she pulls back the curtain on everything surrounding their loved one’s final rest, and that’s what this book did for me as well.
Helga without the H 