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  • Past Mortems

  • Life and death behind mortuary doors
  • By: Carla Valentine
  • Narrated by: Imogen Church
  • Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (101 ratings)
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Past Mortems cover art

Past Mortems

By: Carla Valentine
Narrated by: Imogen Church
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Summary

A day in the life of Carla Valentine - curator, pathology technician and 'death professional' - is not your average day. She spent 10 years training and working as an Anatomical Pathology Technologist: where the mortuary slab was her desk and that day's corpses her task list.

Past Mortems tells Carla's stories of those years and investigates the body alongside our attitudes towards death - shedding light on what the living can learn from the dead and the toll the work can take on the living souls who carry it out. Fascinating and insightful, Past Mortems reveals the truth about what happens when the mortuary doors swing shut or the lid of the coffin closes.

©2017 Carla Valentine (P)2017 Little Brown

What listeners say about Past Mortems

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Excruciating narration.

I'd love to be able to leave a review based on the book itself but I couldn't get past the absolutely excruciating efforts of the narrator. The story is told in a style that flits between irritating and weirdly condescending, and characters' voices are performed in a way that is literally painful to listen to.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Requesting a refund

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Im only two hours in and requesting a refund... not exciting at all

What was most disappointing about Carla Valentine’s story?

The narrator is awful, her voice just irritated me.

Would you be willing to try another one of Imogen Church’s performances?

Absolutely not

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment, it was boring.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting, heartfelt, and funny

Amazing and well told insight in to an amazing life of working with the dead.
Lots of historical and scientific information on death and its various processes told in an easy to understand way. Puts straight many misconceptions of death and mortuarys.
Narrator is great and easy to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely to listen to!

A very detailed book with many interesting aspects and memorable moments. There is a good amount of information within this book to learn and whilst working at a mortuary during my time of reading, I found myself picking up knowledge from this book. Its easy to listen to and i took away a lot. Carla is clearly extremely knowledgeable about her line of work and shows great passion in educating others.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator was hard to listen to

I started this book with an open mind as it seemed to have quite mixed reviews.
Unfortunately im going to have to side with the reviewers that didnt enjoy the narration.
I found it annoying with all the put on accents and just the general tone of it all.
The actual was.... ok..... but i felt talked down to at times.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • H
  • 18-07-23

Absolutely fantastic

Honestly couldn’t recommend this book anymore!

I’ll deffo be reading it again in the future

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

unfortunately see what the reviews mean

when they said condescending narrative I was resistant to believe, but not wven two chapters in and I see what they meant. couldn't finish it although I did have a great interest. narration was the best part, but I struggled to get into the actual text of it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very interesting read

Knowing Carla, my opinion may be slightly biased, but I would say this is a thoroughly interesting read. For the many of us who don't work in the death profession this book gives us an entertaining insight into a world we would otherwise never consider.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and entertaining

I loved every second of this book. As someone who also has wanted to work with the dead it was a brilliant onsite into a world not a lot of people know about or want to.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Braggy.

The author's tone has an overwhelmingly annoying sense of "Hey look how special I am, a short girly female involved with the dead, being this unique somehow grants me the right to be patronising and cocky."

Yeah, no. The fact that I wasn't able to finish this audiobook may be down to the narrator, but the overall tone of the book is braggy and patronising. It somehow lacks a level of human depth I've found in other similarly themed books.

The author obviously has interesting stories to tell and some parts do have educational value, but if you're looking for a more balanced, grown-up, non-braggy insight into death and dying, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty definitely delivers.

Other amazing books on the topic of death include All That Remains by Sue Black (who is incredibly accomplished in her field and yet incredibly humble and grounded) and Unnatural Causes by Dr. Richard Shepherd.

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