The topic of death and death acceptance is of special interest to me. I've long been interested in how different cultures think about and experience death and I have a significant personal library and reading history of books on the topic.

This book is similar to others I have read but I'm always slightly cautious when something is touted as a personal journey through an experience. The danger is that the personal side of things will take over, and the cultures and beliefs explored take a backseat. Does that happen here? Well, slightly. Buist's reflections on her father in law's passing were genuinely affecting but I felt as if her subsequent travels were more about her grief rather than a deeper exploration of the belief systems of other cultures towards death. That's fine if that is what the author was aiming to do, but it's not really what I expected or wanted from the book.

It was an interesting enough read but there are many other similar books of a format who achieve the same thing much more effectively.

I don't often choose to read non-fiction but this book, This Party's Dead by Erica Buist interested me. The reader follows her journey after her father-in-law to be, Chris dies and she travels the world to find out more as to how people from different cultures accept death at death celebrations and festivals. Erica and her would-be father-in-law shared a house and Erica found herself affected by his passing in ways she hadn’t anticipated. The journeys give her a chance to consider her own and others responses to death. Sad, but it contains humour and is also food for thought.

A special thank you to Unbound, Erica Buist, NetGalley and Pigeonhole for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request. This review is my unbiased opinion.

Nonostante mi interessi molto il tema, sia dal punto di vista dell’elaborazione del lutto che da quello più folkloristico dei festival in giro per il mondo, non digerisco lo stile dell’autrice.
Troppo finto-spiritoso, lo trovo irritante e, in qualche modo, mi pare falsifichi l’esperienza.

Despite the topic, this was a very interesting read.

It was really well written and I enjoyed Erica's journey as she travelled to the different death festivals around the world.

It was fascinating to read about how different peoples' views were to death, depending on which part of the world you were in.

For us Brits, it's not something we're openly comfortable talking about, so reading about countries where this was not the case, made for intriguing reading.

Thank you to PH, NetGalley and Erica for the chance to read this book.

It talks about death but it's full of humor and charm.
An excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed and made me learn something new.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This book grabbed my attention as soon as I saw the cover and the title and I’m so glad I picked it up. The author found herself unable to cope after the sudden death of her father-in-law to be; she didn’t feel she had a right to be in the depths of grief and yet couldn’t shake it off. In the end she decides to go to seven death festivals around the world to experience how other cultures deal with death to see if the way we deal (or don’t really deal) with death in Britain is hampering our ability to grieve. I found this book fascinating; I learnt so much about other cultures and it really made me think about the way we shut down talk of death in this country. I could identify with a lot of how Erica felt as I have similar fears but since my mum died I feel it’s much more important to talk openly about our wishes and what we want to happen when we’re gone. I enjoyed seeing Erica’s personal journey as she learnt new things on her travels and how she embraced all her new experiences even when they made her feel uncomfortable. This is a book that I would recommend to everyone. It’s hard to read at times but the mostly it’s inspiring and hopeful and it’s a chance to explore your own feelings around death.

Considering this is a book predominantly about death you may be surprised to find it has a warm, friendly and funny tone. I loved the insight into the various “death celebrations” told perfectly. This book presents travel and tradition mixed with the many manifestations of grief and is simply perfect at delivering them all

It has been ages since I picked up some non-fiction and I managed to land on a book about death! I do read quite a lot of death related non-fiction actually thanks to Caitlin Doughty and her expertise as a mortician and writer. Her books opened the way for so many more writers to elaborate on the subject of death with different perspectives and meanings. Erica Buist found hope in exploring other cultures approach to grieving and caring for their deceased after the devastating circumstances around her own loss. This Party's Dead is a curious, endearing and fascinating look into how communities the world over deal with death (much better than we do in the UK) and how they send off and remember their loved ones. It also addresses interesting social, psychological and religious debates that surround the subject of death. Such as death positivity (being more educated about death) vs transhumanism (defeating death all together). I really enjoyed Erica's writing style, her adventures and how she communicates with those she met along the way (she speaks five languages and I can barely speak one). I have a lot to reflect on after finishing This Party's Dead in terms of how I understand death, what it means to me and how I am going to cope with it when it enters my life. I was truly amazed to see all the different cultures and how they care for, mourn and celebrate the passing of their own families. I felt very British reading this book. I agreed completely with Erica's own view on how we brits are useless at coping with death. This Party's Dead is an absolute must read to help motivate us all to cultivate a better relationship and understanding of death, instead of ignoring its inevitable inclusion in our lives.

I loved this book! I'm always very interested in how others cultures deal with death. It was so interesting to follow Erica on her way to accept her own grief by experiencing how others deal with it. If you liked Caitlin Doughty's books you'll like this.

A fascinating memoir following Erica Buist as she visits seven different death festivals around the world to examine how various cultures both celebrate and process death,

Buist has a writing style that immediately gripped me and I found the book to flow well between the stories of the festivals and Buist's own journey in coping with her grief and mental health. The only thing I didn't like was the graphic descriptions of animal slaughter at the festivals. which was unnecessary and added nothing to the story.

Light hearted and at times humorous but also a sensitive portrayal of death, mental health and culture attitudes, highly recommended.

Thanks to Unbound and NetGalley for the ARC.

It is fascinating how differently we deal with death in different countries and cultures.
This is a non fiction book following Erica Buist to seven death festivals around the world (Nepal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sicily, Japan, Mexico and New Orleans).
I tried to leave my own notion behind of what I consider "normal" around dying and burying while reading this.
This is one of the few books where I feel she could've written even more about the different places she visited. It was so interesting to learn how people deal with dying and death and the amount of love that still goes around. I am considering implementing some of the ideas for my deceased family members (celebrating, using flowers, baking sweets.
Such a beautiful and personal journey and full of interesting facts. Highly recommend it.

This Party's Dead follows Buist on a journey through death customs and festivals after the death of a family member to see how other cultures interact with death.

I loved this book. It felt like Caitlin Doughty's work surrounding death positivity and knowledge that are often ignored in North American culture. I loved exploring the customs, and I think it was an important and interesting journey that deserves more attention. I liked the writing style a great deal and I felt it flowed naturally in a way that kept me hooked.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who experienced grease in the acute manner when I lost someone close to me this book is ideal for those struggling with death. Ii is an informative look at how death is handled in all societies. I found it interesting and enlightening at the same time.

I received a review copy from Unbound via NetGalley of ‘This Party’s Dead’ by Erica Buist. It is subtitled: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World's Death Festivals.

‘Spoiler Alert: We are all going to die.’

Following the sudden death of Chris, her fiancé’s father, Erica Buist finds herself overwhelmed by grief and the awareness that we are all going to die. This led to depression, agoraphobia, and her stalking friends online to ascertain whether any of them had also dropped dead without warning.

Erica finds that she is unable to extract herself from this spiral of death anxiety… until one day she decides to reclaim control. Her plan is to visit seven death festivals (deathivals) around the world to search for the answers to both fundamental and unexpected questions around death anxiety.

Her travels begin in Mexico for their Day of the Dead festivities and then moves on to Nepal, Sicily, Thailand, Madagascar, Japan and finally Indonesia – with a stopover in New Orleans. This city has always held a fascination for me and it was interesting to learn of the macabre history of its cemeteries in which the swampy ground conditions had led to corpses unexpectedly popping up during the 18th Century. This eventually led to the building of tombs above ground.

This was an interesting memoir that was thought provoking, moving and yet quite amusing in places. These lighter anecdotes included Erica’s near Bridget Jones’ moment of wandering obliviously through a TV news broadcast and her wondering if it was okay to take a selfie with a skull.

The book is both a personal journey as Erica deals with her anxieties about death and dying as well as asking broader questions about current attitudes.

This has long been a subject of importance to me; perhaps being self-identified as a Goth it goes with the territory. I certainly found it interesting to encounter through Erica’s eyes these various deathivals and learn more about different cultures.

It’s a memoir that I would heartily recommend for its honesty and for addressing this very important subject.

In This Party's Dead Erica Buist explores attitudes to death and dying after experiencing anxiety due to a bereavement.