I'm writing this as my sleeping meds take effect and I think it's apt. While yes, this is the unhinged romp you may expect from the synopsis, it's also decidedly not. It's an existential, tragic, surreal fever dream, that may awaken questions you've never had before, such as: What is it to be human? Is a lobster claw really that strong? And can a lobster understand what a chandelier is? I will be thinking about this one for a while (not just cause a particular scene made me scared I was gonna have nightmares about it) and may even want to annotate it at some point, which is how you know I've had some Thoughts while reading. Not a perfect 5 for me but a perfectly engaging story about surprisingly human things.

Come join the Lobster 🦞🦞🦞

If you have ever been curious about a "fantasy coffin" or an ancient mummy and wondered about the why behind the ritual, Curious Coffins and Riveting Rituals offers a vibrant, illustrated map to the answers.

What This Book Does Well I did not expect a book on death culture to be so unexpectedly entertaining and remarkably accessible! Discussions of death often require a choice between a heavy, somber tone and a clinical, detached one; Liak finds a third path: light, occasionally humorous, but always respectful. It never "makes fun" of the customs it describes, instead treating every ritual as a vital piece of the human puzzle. The balance between text and illustration is handled really well. While some of the artwork is just beautiful, others are functional! For instance, there were some numbered diagrams that helped me really understand how Mexican ofrendas are set up. Throughout the book, I felt like I was being guided through a death culture museum by a curious, capable hand.

Where It Fell Short For me, this book didn't really fall short. While I enjoyed the brevity of each topic to explore more topics overall, just not as in depth as other books might have gone into, I could see some readers wanting a deeper dive into topics.

Craft & Writing Quality Liak's prose has a sharp, scientific curiosity to it, prioritizing the how and the what. The prose is clear, confident, and professional, but avoids the "academic" density that can slow things down.

Who I Would Recommend This To This book is for the reader who loves a "fun fact" and enjoys learning about different cultures. It reminded me of the scientific curiosity of Marcy Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, blended with the cultural exploration of Caitlin Doughty's From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.

Final Thoughts and Opinions As someone with a long-standing interest in death positivity and death customs, I found Curious Coffins and Riveting Rituals to be a genuine delight. It managed to surface new insights for me, even though I'm likely more familiar with these topics than most due to my interests! I particularly appreciated that it didn't feel "heavy". I could pick it up, learn about a specific custom or technique, and leave feeling enlightened rather than drained. The humor is subtle and effective, and the illustrations truly elevate the educational value while being fun and beautiful! It's a book that invites you to be "morbidly curious" in the best way possible!

My thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the complimentary copy! All opinions are my own!

Scoring Breakdown Personal Enjoyment: 5/5 Overall Execution: 4.5/5 Craft & Writing Quality: 5/5 Author Presence & Credibility: 5/5 Narrative Arc: 4.5/5 Final Score: 4.8/5