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marieintheraw's review against another edition
2.0
The author's writing isn't for me. Additionally, the span of time covered is vast, but not on a micro-history level.
bloodfire's review against another edition
5.0
Great reading! Loved all the interesting dive into history that is just brushed over in the books!
kimwagstaff's review against another edition
4.0
this was a funny and disturbing non-fiction book. i learned a ton not just about poisonous/toxic substances but also medieval/renaissance cultures. the author was pretty funny throughout the book and i enjoyed her commentaries. it was so fascinating to learn about cosmetics and how toxic they used to be (used to…still are? who knows)!! i am always so fascinated with beauty standards and how they have harmed people throughout history and this definitely went into that. she spoke about cleanliness and how toxic an unclean environment can be and how dirty castles were. i can’t stop thinking about how the transition from ancient greek/roman etc. cleanliness standards of bathing every day sometimes for hours and hours to the medieval standard of urinating anywhere and thinking bathing was of the devil and having nasty castles happened because of christianity and colonialism. literally when the christians conquered rome and ruined the aqueducts and didn’t know how to repair them, they decided bathing was for the heathen. the author also talked about how other religions such as islam are also very clean and hygienic and christians decided that was sinful too. don’t know how i didn’t know all that before but i guess we’re not surprised. towards the latter half of the book, she wrote about famous figures from history and about the evidence or lack thereof of death by poison or natural causes. it was fun to learn about their deaths and what we know now with modern science. definitely enjoyed the book but i realize might not be for everyone if they’re not into learning about death by poison.
notthemonalisa's review against another edition
2.0
I know that the historic fashion facts were false, and it made me question everything else in this book. Maybe that is a strong reaction to have, but it's mine nonetheless.
ameyawarde's review against another edition
5.0
This was an almost fun book for a topic that is actually quite dark. It talked about ways that people through history had been poisoned (accidentally or on purpose) throughout history. I liked how it went over a number of cases (if I'm remember it right, it's been a few weeks?) where people thought they had been poisoned by an assassin but it had been something else, as well as cases where it seems they were correct. It felt a bit detectivey in parts and before long I was making guesses like an arsenic expert. And of course all the cases of doctors accidentally killing their patients and people killing themselves accidentally via cosmetics as well was sad, but interesting. It's amazing how ignorant our species can be, even with evidence right in front of our eyes!