Spencer Henry and Madison Reyes have hosted a weekly podcast since 2021 called OBITCHUARY — which started as a venue for sharing “outlandish, hilarious, and sometimes scathing obituaries”, and has grown to include “bizarre history, strange funeral traditions” and a “dumb criminals segment” — and this is a compilation of some of their favourite findings. I expected Obitchuary: The Big Hot Book of Death to be more comprehensive (along the lines of Mary Roach’s Stiff), but while this is not a very serious look at the science or history surrounding death and its rituals, there was much here I hadn’t known before, all told in small, punchy bites. I feel this was written for a younger reader than I — the humour didn’t really land with me — but I do appreciate the effort to demystify that big unknown that’s coming for us all. Maybe not for me, exactly, but I can appreciate that this book will have an audience.