Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber

10 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

I initially had a really hard time reading this because I got so frustrated and angry. The book is well-written, well-researched, and fascinating. My problem was that the medical profession - both the hospital administrators and the licensing people - allowed him to kill so many people, perhaps as many as 400, over a period of SIXTEEN YEARS without doing anything to stop him. The structures that should’ve been keeping people safe were complete failures, and the administrations only cared about liability, not patient safety. 

The book is divided into two halves - the first is about the sixteen years of murder and the second is about the police investigation. That keeps the events understandable although Cullen was in so many facilities - he kept having to move between hospitals and nursing homes as he’d fall under suspicion - that it’s really difficult to keep it all straight. The police investigation and the writing of this book were a confusing tangle and both succeeded only by focusing on discrete sections at a time. 

An excellent entry in true crime and the smaller subset of medical murder, but a horrific indictment of the medical profession as a whole. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Medical trauma, Vomit, Blood, Death, Sexual assault, and Bullying

shainabriley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Murder, Medical trauma, and Medical content

jmkendall0218's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, and Medical content

bookswithjk's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death

snaggy95's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Medical content, Murder, and Animal cruelty

jessicalarson125's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Medical content

clarabooksit's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Murder, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Medical trauma, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, and Death of parent

Minor: Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Violence

kenziburke's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Suicide, Murder, and Stalking

beauty_andbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

2.0

I wanted so much more from this book! I was so excited to read it but unfortunately, it was a let down. The majority of the book is spent discussing how the main suspect is going from hospital to hospital continuing his murders but what was left out was the details. I felt like it was groundhog day just hearing about him going to work at a new hospital. I wanted the nitty gritty of murder. It took me so long to read this book because I just wasn't excited. To the end, it was more about the hospital ethics laws and not the actual murders.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Blood

caidyn's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

5.0

CW: death, murder, attempted suicide (multiple occasions), and stalking

Yep, this was amazing.

I had never heard of Charles Cullen before this book, but now I'll never forget him in my life. He's a nurse serving around 400 years in jail for killing various patients. It's estimated that total could be up to 400 but no one really knows. He was convicted of 35.

Basically, this book is amazing. Graeber captured the mindset Charles had with his killings and just captured everything amazingly. Honestly, this was such a well-researched book. I love how Graeber talked to so many different people for this. It was, really, amazing. An iconic true crime novel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Medical content