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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
Well researched, well-written. A compelling story of the discovery of the Marburg and Ebola viruses. Be forewarned that the first couple of chapters contain extremely graphic descriptions of what happens to the body under the effects of these viruses. Do not read while eating!
reread given the recent/current Ebola epidemic/outbreak
Very descriptive and scary! Worth reading as the latest Ebola outbreak is in the news...
Honestly, I'd give it four stars if it weren't for the incredibly sensationalized descriptions of an Ebola infection (see https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-the-hot-zone-created-the-worst-myths-about-ebola-1649384576/amp), which is plenty scary without images of dissolving into puddles of viscera. This book didn't start my fascination with filoviruses, but it sure fed it, the many times I tried to read it over the years and ended up just skimming through with wide, horrified eyes.
Seriously. This book has been hanging over my head for years because I always ended up feeling panicky and unable to touch anything whenever I picked it up to try and read it (yay OCD!), so I'm really pleased to have finally gotten through it with only minimal hypochondria and handwashing. It may not be one of those 1000 page bricks I originally planned on reading this year, but it has been plaguing (har har) me for almost a decade, so I'm counting it as a win.
Seriously. This book has been hanging over my head for years because I always ended up feeling panicky and unable to touch anything whenever I picked it up to try and read it (yay OCD!), so I'm really pleased to have finally gotten through it with only minimal hypochondria and handwashing. It may not be one of those 1000 page bricks I originally planned on reading this year, but it has been plaguing (har har) me for almost a decade, so I'm counting it as a win.
For some reason, my freshman year biology teacher decided to read this to us when we didn't have assignments. It gave me nightmares and was incredibly disturbing. I guess that speaks to the quality of the writing, but still, not for me.
Before I read this I had never heard of the Marburg virus and couldn't have told you much of anything about Ebola before reading this except that I knew I didn't want it. Now I know a lot more about both and especially the reasons why I would like neither of them, please and thank you.
Of all the times to read this, a pandemic is somehow both the best and the worst.
The good news is that Ebola almost seems quaint in the sense that aside from a few situations they were pretty convinced it wasn't spread through the air (it's obviously still truly awful but seems harder to catch if you aren't interacting with "hot blood" as it were) but the bad news is that it made me much more aware of how easy it is for one thing (especially an airborne and super communicable thing like a coronavirus) to circle the globe.
Two people recommended this to me this year (my mom and a friend) and I'm definitely glad I decided to kick out a different initial book choice to follow through with this one.
Preston's way of writing about this subject made it engaging and kept up the suspense in certain spots that made it feel less like typical nonfiction.
Popsugar 2020 - A medical thriller
Of all the times to read this, a pandemic is somehow both the best and the worst.
The good news is that Ebola almost seems quaint in the sense that aside from a few situations they were pretty convinced it wasn't spread through the air (it's obviously still truly awful but seems harder to catch if you aren't interacting with "hot blood" as it were) but the bad news is that it made me much more aware of how easy it is for one thing (especially an airborne and super communicable thing like a coronavirus) to circle the globe.
Two people recommended this to me this year (my mom and a friend) and I'm definitely glad I decided to kick out a different initial book choice to follow through with this one.
Preston's way of writing about this subject made it engaging and kept up the suspense in certain spots that made it feel less like typical nonfiction.
Popsugar 2020 - A medical thriller
challenging
informative
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent
This book will make you question every symptom you may or may not have and make you want to just take shower, after shower, after shower. I swear, I became a hypochondriac for a month after that and thought that everyone who had red eyes or had a cold had Ebola. I got a primary care doctor right after I finished reading the book and got everything checked out, haha. Seriously, if you want to read the book, be prepared to be horrified. And if you can't deal with disease or if you're already scared of getting sick, don't read it. Cells now terrify me, as do monkeys, a bit.
A nonfiction story that reads like a film script, this book follows the actions of several scientists in the middle of an Ebola outbreak in a colony of imported monkeys in Virginia. Filled with fascinating science and well-developed portraits of the people involved, this was a fun and informative read.
richard preston's fantastic writing style will totally immerse you into the story of how ebola broke containment of a reston, virginia lab monkey quarantine facility, almost spreading to the D.C. metro area and beyond. my favorite part of the entire book is the amazing imagery that settles you as the reader in transcendentalist-like descriptions of sub-saharan africa's primordial natural landscapes; along with details that will make your stomach turn in pure disgust with details of coffee-ground textured bloody vomit and people's faces turning into masks because the tissues underneath melted. i certainly never knew how terrifying and grotesque hemorrhagic viruses are until i read this book! rest in peace to all those ebola victims. like, damn.