Published 2025. Finished January 18th, 2026.
I've had a copy of Stiff by the lovely Roach on my shelf for years and somehow I get around to reading a library copy of this before that. Ah well.
Generally, I prefer my non-fiction to have a serious tone. The kinds of non-fiction I like to read don't lend themselves to humor terribly often anyway. But Roach is undeniably humerous and I don't mind how she does it. It helps that she reminds me of a dearly beloved professor I had in college, a woman in her 60s, like Roach, who approaches her subjects with the same zest and meticulousness and playfulness and humility. And besides, Roach knows when to be serious. She's not crass.
What she is, is great at simply explaining the extremely specialized and complicated science in several of the chapters, though frankly, some of them are just too complicated to be truly dumbed down, and you may have to read some sections a few times or shrug and move on without really getting it. Where I think Roach truly shines is in what makes up a sizeable chunk of the book: interviews. She asks excellent questions and, when recounting conversations to us readers, includes details about her interviewee and the setting(s) of their conversation that ground and enhance the work.
Overall, Replaceable You is a fairly brief and exciting read for any medical science or human body enthusiasts.
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