katiemcvay's reviews
268 reviews

I loved this book on multiple levels. It was fascinating, with a rich and complete world that I believed. But also the language is beautiful. The reading of it was a joy, outside of the great plot. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

A breezy pop-historical read. I'm not sure how this book was packaged (I read an e-book copy from the library) but I imagine it would make a good coffee table book. With each story of a corpse (or part of a corpse or a funeral) lasting only 3-4 pages, it would be easy to pick up, read, and put down again at any moment. It is filled with compulsively readable anecdotes, but, as a complete book, it sort of fell apart for me with its tone. When dealing with "controversial" corpses (as the book might put it) like those of Mussolini or Columbus, the book doesn't really ground these figures as much as I would have liked, and their actions in life sort of get glossed over. The book tells me that the DR and Spain fought over Columbus' reputed corpse, but makes no mention of the fact that Columbus was jailed during his lifetime in Spain for his conduct during his voyages. This, presumably, would come to bear in Spain's treatment of his corpse, but the book makes no mention of the event (or many others) that might have affected the situation. I understand that these intricacies are a little much to get into in such a breezy volume, but I wish these stories were excised entirely in favor of fewer, but more in-depth pieces on not only the treatment of that specific corpse in that specific moment, but how that corpse's treatment reflected (or did not reflect) funereal practices of the time.