I really liked that the author went and interviewed, found people to talk about their work with the dead. I found it very insightful.
I especially liked the part of the bereavement midwife, what a great innovation and one that is sorely needed.
The writing was plain and not too technical. The author went and watched each person work and asked a lot of good questions in regards to what it was that they did.
She covered just about everything from donating your body to science, freezing your body, cremation, and more.
The only part I was a bit concerned with was that she kept mentioning how she had no fear of death, wasn't grossed out by it,,,,then she saw the baby slip under the water....then the reader got to hear about that baby ad nausem.

A good book about death occupations.

A haunting, poignant, and thought-provoking book on the reality of death, All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell is a must-read for the morbidly curious and for those who want to learn more about what it’s like to work behind death's door.

From embalmers to executioners, Journalist Hayley Campbell expertly dispels all myths I once believed surrounding death, getting down to the nitty-gritty and doing so with respect and brutal honesty. You definitely can't go wrong with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

All the Living and the Dead is an amazing book. As I get older, sign up for Medicare and begin to face my own mortality in a more serious way, I have looked for books to help with this process. There is not a lot out there, and I hesitated before requesting this book from Netgalley, but Hayley Campbell has written about death and the many different people associated with it so well that I found the book informative and beautiful.

The author wrote the book because she wondered how people who have made death their work manage it on a daily basis.

“If the reason we’re outsourcing this burden is because it’s too much for us, how do they deal with it?”

Campbell interviews many different people associated with death - a funeral director, the director of anatomical services at Mayo Clinic, an embalmer, a crime scene cleaner, a death mask maker, an executioner, anatomic pathology technologist, bereavement midwife, gravediggers, crematorium operator, and even people at a cryonics institute. I learned that there are many more people involved with death than I ever thought, and with their varied viewpoints, I also learned that it's far more than just a job to many of them. The care and respect they feel and show in their work is evident, even if it's work that most people will never see and may not be appreciated. There are a few morbid details, but Campbell gets involved in some of these details, such as dressing a corpse, handling a brain during an autopsy, and raking remains from the crematorium. This helps to make them seem just a little less morbid.

The book never struck me as macabre or sensationalizing death, but I thought it was written with a fine balance between empathy and clinically explained details. I highly recommend Hayley Campbell and this book as a compassionate and honest way to read about death, ease your fears, and face mortality.

"The world is full of people telling you how to feel about death and dead bodies, and I don't want to be one of them - I don't want to tell you how to feel about anything, I only want you to think about it."

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

This is a comprehensive and informative book about the plethora of jobs and processes involved in the death industry. Campbell describes her interviews with decency and respect for the workers, their tasks, and the care the workers provide. Although Campbell started the book long before the COVID-19 pandemic, I appreciate that she included a chapter focusing on how what she learned affected her views on life and on the pandemic.

I don't even know how to explain what a phenomenal read this was. Death, it's all around us. Whether we experienced a loss of a loved one, are addicted to murder shows, read thrillers that tangle it's plot around it, A history full of punishment and death. Images plastered throughout the web. It's literally everywhere. And we are kind of used to it.

But there are people who have dedicated their lives to death. Morticians, embalmers, crime scene cleaners and executioners to just name a few. How do these people look at death? How do they go home at the end of the day and continue to sit down and eat with their families, go to sleep at night and just plain accept all that they have seen and done throughout the day. Are they numb to it? Do they turn it off? Well Hayley Campbell sets out to get those answers. She spends her days with those who do these jobs, accompanying them throughout the day. Diving into their minds and feelings and the roles they play daily . I don't think I will ever look at some of these things the same gain. I have much more respect down those who do these jobs. And honestly in my opinion, some of these people might just be earths angels.

This is a really neat book! It is so needed and I highly recommend it!
Once the deceased are actually dead, people go into a frenzy regarding the death and then the rituals needed.
I believe that we could all stand to understand it all a bit better.
"All the Living and the Dead" tells it as it is.
Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and #St Martin's Press for this ARC and allowing me to provide my own review.

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell: This BOOK! If you’re like me and enjoy exploring the darker parts of humanity and what it means to, well, be…then this is for you. Campbell searches out people in the field of death, from the ones you expect (like a Funeral director) to the Unexpected (National Disaster Relief Teams) and just about everything in between. For fans of Caitlin Doughty but more journalistic, you need this in your life.

I’ve always been fascinated with death and Hayley Campbell does a great job keeping my attention. I enjoyed getting glimpses of different professions and what/how they handle their occupations in the death community.

All the Living and the Dead was a super interesting read for anyone curious about the "death industry". Campbell approaches the subject with grace and respect for the dead. She also makes the writing easy to digest and very informative! I first read Mary Roach's "Stiff" to get acquainted with this topic; this book is a great companion to that!

Absolutely excellent. Deserves a spot next to Caitlin Doughty and Carla Valentine. A recommended first purchase for all collections.

As someone who has read a lot of books about death, I already knew I was going to enjoy reading All the Living and the Dead. It hits so many of my areas of interest. If you have read Mary Roach or any Caitlin Doughty. you will enjoy not only the content of this book but also how it is written!. (As other reviews have noted.) Hayley Campbell does an incredible job of making her subject of focus very approachable, which can be very difficult when talking about death. This book offers so much insight into the people involved in the death industry and the deep respect they have for what they do. I would absolutely recommend picking this book up!

I was absolutely enthralled by this book from the very first page. I’ve always been intrigued by death. The history of how our bodies were handled, the rituals around it, the science of exactly what happens to us postmortem. A book like this could easily become heavy and dark, but Hayley was able to convey these things in an easily digestible way. Her exploration of death was refreshing, informative and thought provoking. Well done!

If you liked Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty or Stiff by Mary Roach you HAVE to read All the Living and the Dead. This book is segmented into chapters dedicated to a specific part of the death process: be it cleaning a crime scene, embalming, or disaster relief. I couldn't stop turning the pages to learn more about the people in this industry who bring so much life and hope in contrast with what I originally thought. Highly recommend.