Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France

8 reviews

laurenmaria422's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death, Cancer, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide, Outing, Homophobia, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Police brutality, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Drug use

apersonallibrary's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Suicide, Ableism, Mental illness, Medical content, Cancer, Vomit, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Biphobia, Outing, and Medical trauma

maggieparedesauthor's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Biphobia, Addiction, Bullying, Hate crime, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Drug abuse

readingatthemuseum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Child death, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Hate crime, and Homophobia

lily1304's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

It's impossible not to compare this book to And the Band Played On - both first-hand amounts of the early years of the epidemic by gay activist-journalists. Both books (understandably) feature an exhaustive number of "characters" such that it was difficult for me to keep track of who's who, and both nobly attempt to make the medical details of HIV/AIDS comprehensible to laypeople. But How to Survive a Plague has a huge, undeniable advantage over And the Band Played On: the perspective of almost 30 extra years.

And the Band Played On was published in 1987, and author Randy Shilts unfortunately passed away of AIDS in 1994. How to Survive a Plague was published in 2016 and covers the epidemic through the sudden, groundbreaking discovery of the first long-term effective treatments in 1995. Shilts' work also contains some falsehoods - notably, the demonization of "Patient Zero" Gaetan Dugas - making me trust France's account more.

It's a long but essential read for LGBTQ history in the United States. It made me feel proud to be part of the community that invented safer-sex practices, taught themselves immunology and pharmaceutical study design, and came together as a community to support People With AIDS who were abandoned by their own families, doctors, and nurses. It also humbled me to see the ways that gay drama, infighting, and extremism hindered medical progress.

It's especially interesting to read about Anthony Fauci's role in drug research and his public perception at the time - given that he's now such a well-known figure in the COVID epidemic, popular along strict party lines. France in general does a good job of illustrating the challenges that researchers faced, under activist pressure to release new drugs quickly without long-term placebo trials. It is fascinating to read about the rise and fall of AZT (referenced in historical fiction like Rent and Pose) as an AIDS treatment - a drug that apparently helped a LOT short-term, but ultimately did nothing to extend PWAs' lives.

Mental illness and substance abuse are throughlines in the book, which begins and ends with the death of PWA activist Spencer Cox, who had apparently intentionally stopped taking his medications. France's epilogue is beautiful and sad, acknowledging the epidemic of substance abuse that began soon after the AIDS epidemic slowed - of course, both epidemics are still with us in 2021 and I'm sure many more books could be written about queer public health today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Dementia, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Outing, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

bexh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Biphobia, Death, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Suicide, and Terminal illness

junefish's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Child death, Sexual content, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Confinement, Suicide, and Pregnancy

holomew151's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Homophobia, and Ableism