Charnel House Reviews

I have always had a bit of a thing for the macabre, whether it's creepy old buildings, abandoned cemeteries, or dusty old antique shops. I'm also interested in the history of mental heath care, which at times has more closely resembled torture than treatment.


When Dipper sent me a link to The Order of the Good Death, I was intrigued. Through The Order, Caitlin works to bring a better understand of death to people. She is a proponent of making death a more natural part of our culture again, instead of it being cold and distant. Caitlin believes that if the family has more involvement in the funerary process, it helps the grieving process, and allows us to take an honest look at death and dying. Unfortunately it's an experience none of us are going to avoid.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is an account of Caitlin's first experience with death and the way it shaped the woman she would become. She writes about how she became part of the funeral business. When she first starts out…

Back when I was in high school, one of my English teachers kept a small bookshelf with different books for us to read if we had nothing to occupy ourselves with. One day I started a book that I didn't get to finish, but wished I had. I've been searching for this particular book off and on for years, but it's hard to find a book when all you can remember is that the cover was white, and some guy on a plane literally exploded with Ebola. Not exactly the best description to go by!

Surprisingly enough, Dipper recognized the book by my description. He told me I was looking for The Hot Zoneby Richard Preston. He also forewarned me that it wasn't the greatest piece of literature he'd ever read, but if I was that interested that it had stayed with me, I might as well read it.

A couple weeks ago my job took me to a local hospital that isn't within the usual system I work. One of the unspoken bonuses of working in hospital systems is that most of the gift shops offer a c…