Opinion: Great book for anyone interested in a career in death work, complete with thorough interviews of the people involved and grisly details of a days work. I enjoyed reading the book for the aforementioned reasons and the memoir-style did not completely put me off, however, I felt that something was missing from the book, though I cannot pinpoint what. Perhaps a couple of the chapters seem hastily written, without as much information as the rest. Overall, Campbell does a great job of capturing the stories and emotions of the individuals who have dedicated their lives to working with the dead. 

Synopsis: Part memoir, part journalistic book by Hayley Campbell exploring twelve different death-focused careers, ranging from funeral director to crime scene cleaner to cryonics. Each chapter features a different career and point person who Campbell interviews, detailing their personal stories of why they chose the work and how it has affected them, while also weaving in her own past experiences and fascination with death, and why she chose to explore these careers. There is a grotesque nature to this book as Campbell describes her own observations in detail.  SPOILER…

The chapter Love and Terror contains descriptive infant death, which is incredibly upsetting to Campbell, as she references this event in subsequent chapters.