** spoiler alert ** This book came out in 2002, so bits of it are fairly out of date, but the historical information is fascinating. I am easily squicked by creepy crawlies and gore, and there were a number of things in this book that were disturbing, but it's easier for me to read about gross things than watch them on film (or deal with them in person).

Roach's writing style is a chatty mixture of shameless curiosity, genuine respect for the people cadavers used to be, gallows humor, and eyebrow-raised cynicism.

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the book. The body farm was very cool, and the face-lift workshop was chillingly creepy. But I think Roach loses her thread when she gets to the trip to China and never quite recovers it, but then I'm far more interested in the history of humanity's treatment of dead people than contemporary options (although the bit about getting freeze-dried and made into fertilizer was cool). I hadn't known that cremated remains have virtually no value as a fertilizer (or that the Catholic Church is okay with cremation, but not scattering).

Anyway, it was fascinating. The section on what happens to bodies in airplane disasters was horrific. And it took longer to read than I wanted (I have issues with skipping ahead, so I don't)...but that was mostly because the final chapters were less interesting to me.

Four stars for the first 2/3. Two stars for the last third.