Book Review: Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo

I picked up Final Exits at Barnes & Noble after being drawn to the cover art. I thought it was a murder mystery at first. After reading the back and learning it was a carefully researched encyclopedia of the ways people die, I bought it. But it sat on my shelf at home unread for almost a year. Every time I’d pick it up, I’d either avoid reading it because I thought it would be too gross or I thought the encyclopedia style would make it a choppy read. When I finally did start reading it, I wasn’t completely wrong, but I didn’t have much to worry about. There were a few gross parts (after all, death isn’t pretty), but I didn’t find anything so horribly gross that I had to put the book down.

(Reader warning: I watch a lot of medical and crime shows, so I have a fairly high tolerance for medical-related grossness. If you can make it through an episode or two of “ER” or “CSI Miami” you should be fine.)

Oddly enough, the choppy reading style induced by the short sections on each death type made for a great reading experience. I was able to pick the book up when I only had a few minutes to read and didn’t want to get bogged down in a book with longer chapters.

The book was really, really interesting. The statistics on deaths of any kind are appalling, but it was especially interesting (and a little scary) to read how many people die in freak accidents. There were some parts that seemed to rely less on pure facts and more on the generally held beliefs about some items (one example is the presentation of spontaneous human combustion). However, overall it was a really entertaining book. I doubt I’d read it again, since most of the information’s value is in the novelty of it all.

It’s not yet available on the Kindle, but it is available in paperback on Amazon.com.