Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

173 reviews

sweethart's review against another edition

3.75

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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Green briefly addresses how absurd it is that his writing career led him to this book in particular at some point in this work. He has a very keen way of keeping the science of things, but laying the information out in such a way that it’s accessible to laypeople. He made some really fascinating inferences about TB and how chronic conditions often go untreated because of social boundaries society places on them. Tying the academic side of things with Henry’s story gave the book a through line. Henry’s life and perspective also allows one to feel hope regarding a subject that feels particularly hopeless. Overall, an informative and inspiring read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Classism

goodnightgraciereader's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

grumpyreading's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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🦠 Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green 🦠

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tuberculosis has haunted humanity for thousands of years—once romanticized, now recognized as a disease rooted in poverty and injustice. In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young TB patient in Sierra Leone, sparking a deep friendship and a commitment to advocacy. In Everything Is Tuberculosis, Green shares Henry’s story alongside the history and future of one of the world’s deadliest—but curable—diseases.

This book was great! I listened to the audiobook and I highly recommend doing the same. Hearing this narrated by John Green really made the story come through and I think made this a much more emotional book. John Green talked a lot about what leads to disease and widespread treatment and stigma. This book talked about about how diseases, including those that are controllable, become diseases of poverty, and how this cycle continues through issues like having no funding for food in hospitals, or requiring treatment be overseen by professionals causing people to leave their jobs, furthering spread in low-income places. John Green also talked about the romanticization of disease in white people and the contribution to beauty standards that this has, and how this shifts when diseases no longer impact mostly white people. He also talked about how the medical system and society act as though societal issues causing sickness and symptoms are painted as individual issues, dehumanizing patients and causing people to not value survival of those who are sick, and to not value their lives, which impacts allocation of global public health resources. 

While none of the information in this book was new to me, he described it in a very accessible way, and really humanized it through talking about individuals, especially Henry, and their stories. If only I get the anti-vaxxers to read this one and hear a bit more about public health and spread of diseases and what we can do to help mitigate in a system that doesn’t value healing for those who are marginalized. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Racism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

livethroughbooks's review against another edition

3.5

informative slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma

hmetwade's review against another edition

4.75

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

gwenswoons's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

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This was excellent — it was on the summer reading list I’m going through by a fave indie bookstore (The Bookshelf of Thomasville, Georgia); it’s not one I would have read on my own and I’m glad I did. I haven’t read The Anthropocene Reviewed but for sure will put it on my TBR after this, in audio form since I thought John Green’s own narration of this was great. It was a challenging read, but JG made it both beautifully accessible and informative in its colloquial feel and personal storytelling. I especially appreciated Green’s attention to connecting the dots between TB and so many other forms of injustice in the world and across history — racism, inequity, and violence of every kind, across countries and civilizations. I would (and will!) recommend this to any reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

aposey1223's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism

gachnar's review against another edition

4.75

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Transphobia, Outing, Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail

cadybooks's review against another edition

5.0

informative reflective fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery, Transphobia

Minor: Cancer, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail

hannahrogers's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Racism, Colonisation, Classism

Minor: Cancer, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, War