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Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
14 reviews
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Chronicles the outbreak of cholera in 19th century London that ultimately led to a new scientific way of seeing disease.
The first two thirds of the book were very interesting. Learning about the cholera outbreak and how Snow traced it to the well, as well as the other facts was fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the brief description of the history of anesthetic.
The epilogue kind of threw me off a bit. It felt almost rambly, and I was struggling to connect all the talk about terrorism and nuclear attacks to cholera and Snow. It was interesting to listen to it post-Covid, given that the book was written well before the pandemic, but it was still very strange.
The first two thirds of the book were very interesting. Learning about the cholera outbreak and how Snow traced it to the well, as well as the other facts was fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the brief description of the history of anesthetic.
The epilogue kind of threw me off a bit. It felt almost rambly, and I was struggling to connect all the talk about terrorism and nuclear attacks to cholera and Snow. It was interesting to listen to it post-Covid, given that the book was written well before the pandemic, but it was still very strange.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Terminal illness, Death, Chronic illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, and Excrement
cinda_lu's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This was a great book! Very informative and well written. I really liked how the author wrote (and he seemed to inject a sense of subtle humor throughout). The only thing I didn't like was how long the ending was. The Conclusion and Epilogue could have been half as long in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death
ambaright's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Excrement
Moderate: Child death and Grief
rafacolog's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Gore
elizafiedler's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Very gross, but really fascinating and informative. Skip this one if you're sensitive to bodily fluids and descriptions of medical problems or trauma.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Vomit, and Excrement
Moderate: Death
Minor: Body horror
abbykruth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Child death
the_true_monroe's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Death, Animal death, Medical content, Excrement, and Vomit
onlyonebookshelf's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Death
cj13's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Child death, and Gore
Moderate: Classism
megatza's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
In the middle of the 19th century, cholera ravaged a dense few blocks of Soho, London. In the Victorian era, the disease moved quickly and unrelentingly, often causing death within mere days, if not hours. Steven Johnson builds an intriguing investigative narrative around the outbreak and the 19th century debate over its cause: infected water versus miasma. Of course, he’s using the lens of 21st century medicine to comb through archives, but the account is compelling, as is the medical debate and the state of public health policy and planning in the Victorian era.
But Johnson loses me in two places: the abiding connection to maps he insists on and the extrapolation of this research to 21st century urban disasters like nuclear terrorism. From a modern perspective, public health maps are a critical resource, of course. Unfortunately the last 2.5 years have taught us that maps are not everything if the virus is airborne and even quarantines and vaccines have their limits. (I’d be intrigued if anyone has seen anything from Johnson revisiting his epilogue in light of our recent experiences.) But obviously, a book published in 2006 is going to have a very different outlook on outbreaks than one published in 2022.
That said, Johnson absolutely lost me, and a full star, when he drifted into his discussion of Euro-centric contemporary urban planning as the pinnacle of human achievement and the risk of nuclear or bioterrorism. His arguments have some merit (but should be tempered with a healthy dose of post-colonialism and a more contemporary approach to urban planning as well as the consideration of racism as a public health crisis), but they felt wildly out of place as the bulk of two very long chapters following his compelling narrative of Victorian medicine.
“There is something profoundly enlightening about seeing these patterns of life and death laid out in cartographic form. …. When the next great epidemic does come, maps will be as crucial as vaccines in our fight against the disease. But again, the scale of the observation will have broadened considerably from a neighborhood to an entire planet.”
That all said, the first part was very interesting - and sets the tone for so many of the historical romances I read! - and I appreciated that this was out #PlagueNovelPals pick for June.
But Johnson loses me in two places: the abiding connection to maps he insists on and the extrapolation of this research to 21st century urban disasters like nuclear terrorism. From a modern perspective, public health maps are a critical resource, of course. Unfortunately the last 2.5 years have taught us that maps are not everything if the virus is airborne and even quarantines and vaccines have their limits. (I’d be intrigued if anyone has seen anything from Johnson revisiting his epilogue in light of our recent experiences.) But obviously, a book published in 2006 is going to have a very different outlook on outbreaks than one published in 2022.
That said, Johnson absolutely lost me, and a full star, when he drifted into his discussion of Euro-centric contemporary urban planning as the pinnacle of human achievement and the risk of nuclear or bioterrorism. His arguments have some merit (but should be tempered with a healthy dose of post-colonialism and a more contemporary approach to urban planning as well as the consideration of racism as a public health crisis), but they felt wildly out of place as the bulk of two very long chapters following his compelling narrative of Victorian medicine.
“There is something profoundly enlightening about seeing these patterns of life and death laid out in cartographic form. …. When the next great epidemic does come, maps will be as crucial as vaccines in our fight against the disease. But again, the scale of the observation will have broadened considerably from a neighborhood to an entire planet.”
That all said, the first part was very interesting - and sets the tone for so many of the historical romances I read! - and I appreciated that this was out #PlagueNovelPals pick for June.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Excrement, Child death, and Vomit