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mdwsn27's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Grief, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood
emgovan's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Terminal illness
Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy
flamingtashhh's review
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
I thought this was way overhyped. Summary: guy tries to get as close to death as possible, achieves this goal. Dies.
In seriousness, I didn’t like the author at all. I cried at the end because of course death is terrible, but this was out of no love for him. He seemed to have a lot of self-importance that was tied to his work. I’m very grateful for medicine, but this kind of arrogance- that which declares medical treatment to be the greatest of all treatment, or at least doctors the best givers of care there are- is dangerous and absurd. It’s like if Jack from Lost wrote a book. I know plenty of people like this author, and none of them are happy and I wouldn’t take seriously any philosophical treatises of theirs, either.
And I’m not going to make a habit of picking apart the prose of a man writing through his last year, so I have nothing to say about the writing itself.
I actually liked the epilogue a lot, written by the author’s wife. She says there’s a lot he didn’t convey about himself and his values in the book, and honestly I really appreciated that. Her notes, and the pain and hurt in them, really gave another dimension to what would have otherwise been an uninteresting read.
In seriousness, I didn’t like the author at all. I cried at the end because of course death is terrible, but this was out of no love for him. He seemed to have a lot of self-importance that was tied to his work. I’m very grateful for medicine, but this kind of arrogance- that which declares medical treatment to be the greatest of all treatment, or at least doctors the best givers of care there are- is dangerous and absurd. It’s like if Jack from Lost wrote a book. I know plenty of people like this author, and none of them are happy and I wouldn’t take seriously any philosophical treatises of theirs, either.
And I’m not going to make a habit of picking apart the prose of a man writing through his last year, so I have nothing to say about the writing itself.
I actually liked the epilogue a lot, written by the author’s wife. She says there’s a lot he didn’t convey about himself and his values in the book, and honestly I really appreciated that. Her notes, and the pain and hurt in them, really gave another dimension to what would have otherwise been an uninteresting read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Infertility, Chronic illness, Death, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Vomit, and Cancer
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