The Chick and the Dead cover art

The Chick and the Dead

Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors

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About this listen

Carla Valentine works with the dead. After studying forensics, she assisted pathologists with postmortems for years before becoming the curator of the world's most famous pathology museum. When it comes to death, she truly is an expert, and in this book she shares that expertise.

Using the most common postmortem process as the backbone of the narrative, The Chick and the Dead takes the listener through the process of an autopsy while also describing the history and changing cultures of our relationship with the dead. The book is full of vivid insight into what happens to our bodies in the end. Each chapter considers an aspect of an autopsy alongside an aspect of Carla's own life and work and touches on some of the more controversial aspects of our feelings toward death, including the relationship between sex and death and our attitudes toward human tissue collection.

Starting with the first cut, we move from external examination into the body itself, discovering more about the heart, stomach, and brain, and into dismembered and reconstructed bodies, at each stage taking a colorful detour into the question of what these things can teach us about the living.

©2017 Carla Valentine (P)2017 Tantor Medical Murder Professionals & Academics True Crime Crime Heartfelt

What the critics say

"[Valentine's] zest for gross-out depictions of bodily functions...works spectacularly well...the book succeeds as a morbidly galloping parade of every possible kind of dead body." ( The New York Times)
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the overall story was entertaining all the way through, the author talks about her evolving career, the stories she tells are detailed, graphic and overall amusing.
The narrator has a pleasant voice which is easy to listen to and adds to the experience.

an entertaining listen

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This was SUCH an interesting book! I went on after reading it, to look up where Carla works and the description she gave in the book was so like the real thing.! It is written with both compassion and humor ...a page turner for sure... # Audible1

#Audible1

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I love Carla Valentine but listening to this book was not my cup of tea. Also the reader’s voice was hard to follow. Maybe if I read out myself it would have been different.

Story was too all over the place

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