Book Review: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

I have always had a weird fascination with death and dying. Ever since I was a child. I am not sure when it started, but I wanted to become a mortician when I was a teenager. I never did. So listening to this book was like reliving those thoughts I had as a kid and more. This is a morbidly funny book. I found myself more than once smiling, and not even to the obviously pronounced jokes the writer herself emphasized. But those she carefully laid there for the readers who don’t get offended. There was a lot to get offended by, but I would say such people were reading a book not intended for them. Anyway, the book is a QA of all the questions Caitlin Doughty has received as a mortician. She answers them with thorough details, going beyond the basics, showing her comprehensive knowledge of death and dying and burial practices.

One of my favorite passages was the details of human body protein levels and why we make lousy red meat. And her answering to the question asked on the cover was funny as hell. The answer is… you have to read it, especially if you own cats. I am okay if my cats have to eat me, but I am not okay if they cremate my body. I have this horrible image in my mind as my body convulses there in extreme heat. So I want the aquatic burial that Doughty talks about. She only mentions it in passing twice, but I highly recommend reading Stiff by Mary Roach as well. Another fantastic book about the subject. Both books have similarities, and there is a lot of overlapping, but then again, both have their own box where they play. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? is from the perspective of a mortician, that is the salt of the book. 

If you are like me, obsessed with this stuff, then this is a book for you. And it doesn’t matter if you already know the answer to every question; listening to Caitlin Doughty was entertaining. At times, her stressing to her pathetic jokes was annoying, but I am sure there was self-irony involved. Anyway, shoo, go, and make sure your cats have an endless supply of food upon your early demise if you don’t want to have bite marks. 

Thank you for reading, have a spooky day. Give your corpse worms the outing they deserve. ❤