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churrocaitie's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, War, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Torture, Transphobia, Animal death, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Gore, and Racism
Minor: Trafficking
boop123's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Medical content, Rape, Medical trauma, Murder, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death, Body horror, Racism, and Gore
Moderate: Pedophilia, Transphobia, War, and Antisemitism
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Adult/minor relationship, and Miscarriage
siobhanward's review against another edition
3.5
All that to say, this was an interesting read overall. I appreciated that the chapters were fairly long, which meant an in-depth look at the topics at hand, rather than short, disjointed pieces. I will say, however, that a good deal of this felt like an advertisement for Kean's podcast - so many footnotes just ended with "for more info, check out episode x of my podcast" which got annoying pretty quickly.
Overall, Kean handles a number of sensitive topics with respect - the topics he chose were interesting and seemingly well-researched, and I enjoyed learning more about things I only had a general knowledge of before (including what an ice pick is apparently, because I realized while reading, I always pictured ice axes before...).
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Medical content, Child abuse, Gore, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Blood, Dysphoria, Excrement, Confinement, Colonisation, Body horror, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Abortion and Antisemitism
gk1412's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Antisemitism, Death, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Deportation, Hate crime, Transphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence
mfrisk's review against another edition
3.0
I note this because while I find the overall subject interesting and also important in terms of the fields of science, medicine, and fields which intersect with these areas I don’t feel like these stories were given the appropriate weight and critical lens. As many reviewers mention inappropriate terminology is used for a variety of marginalized populations within this book and I often felt the author was trying to get a laugh out of us (the readers) more than they were working to connect the story to their larger point of morality and ethics. The podcast plugs were annoying but not as egregious as the lack of depth certain stories were given when they covered very sensitive topics. It may not have hurt for their to be additional commentary from other folks especially in stories where marginalized populations were involved and that was only touched on a surface level. I’ve listened to the podcast as well after reading some stories in this book and it has similar issues seen in this book.
Also want to add this book could have used a more central defining element or at least narrowing down to specific field or some other way to make this more focused. It often was confusing that the stories felt so disconnected and the conclusion doesn’t quite pull together the ideas enough.
Graphic: Medical content, Slavery, Self harm, Misogyny, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Torture, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Murder, Racism, and Sexism
phoebemurtagh's review against another edition
3.5
They some things shouldn't be attempted by the faint of heart or squeamish. As a squeamish person myself, I'd like to refine that: you can most certainly attempt, but you might need to skim through the physical descriptions of how to perform an ice pick lobotomy.
This was a good collection of scientists gone bad: some of the stories were disturbing and familiar ones I'd already heard, while some were disturbing and new. My only criticisms would be that while such a book must necessarily take a dark sense of humor, I found the author's attempts at levity in the face of evil just a little irreverent sometimes. More disappointingly, though, the author refers to bunk science as "voodoo" in at least one place; it's a small thing, but perpetuating a stereotype that African disaporic religious traditions that developed as a result of American slavery are somehow 'less valid' and the equivalent of bad science is below the mark for any journalist.
All in all, I preferred The Disappearing Spoon, but this is a good book, too.
Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Classism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
kbergsten's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Torture, Transphobia, Ableism, Abortion, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Physical abuse, and Rape
clarabooksit's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Slavery, Dysphoria, Xenophobia, Violence, Torture, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Genocide, Colonisation, Child abuse, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism
akazzy8's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Transphobia, Torture, Slavery, Racism, Murder, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Gore, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol
While there are many content warnings, I would mention they are stated in more of a detached academic fashion. While there are horrible portions, it is not always written like a story, so readers detachment from some of these acts make this book less "graphic". This certainly is not to say that these warnings aren't still there!readundancies's review against another edition
4.0
Let it be known that this is not for the faint of heart. A lot of the more disillusioning and heavy content is covered in a very clinical way, and it can take a bit of getting used to. There are some really coldhearted individuals out there and this book highlights some of the most infamous of the lot.
It’s so interesting though. I was living for this content. The number of times I said What the fuck?!? while reading was too many.
At this point I should probably mention that I read this non-chronologically. It’s written in a way that each chapter is directly connected to and leads into the next. But, I was feeling out of sorts and decided to switch things up and read all over the place with respect to chapters. I didn't find it even mildly disconcerting, so I'd say if you wanted to read chapters out of order, it's very doable.
My favourite chapters in no particular order include:
- Piracy: The Buccaneer Biologist
- Slavery: The Corruption of the Flycatcher
- Grave-Robbing: Jekyll & Hyde, Hunter & Knox
- Murder: The Professor and the Janitor
- Ambition: Surgery for the Soul
- Malpractice: Sex, Power, and Money
- Fraud: Superwoman.
If you're looking for a science-based non-fiction read with some true crime flair to the writing, I definitely recommend this.
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Dysphoria, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, and Violence