738 reviews for:

The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I

Lindsey Fitzharris

4.28 AVERAGE

seattlefraggle's review against another edition

5.0

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Uh oh. A book came in about my favorite esoteric topic - facial reconstruction surgery. I'm about to become (even more) insufferable to my loved ones. :-D

Update: This was everything I hoped for...AND MORE. And bonus, I passed it along to a coworker that also enjoys morbid and horrifying topics. (And shares my affection for Boardwalk Empire. RIP Richard Harrow. <3)

Whew, I'll admit it though, this is a harrowing read. Every time I encounter detailed content about the horrors of WWI, I am absolutely amazed that ANYONE survived.

I would highly recommend this book to people interested in WWI and/or medical history, as well as folks that enjoy engaging narrative NF in the style of Erik Larson or Mary Roach.

gigiswebofbooks's review against another edition

5.0

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A forgotten and overlooked portion of the WW1 and WW2: the disabled soldiers, specifically the facial disfigurement of soldiers from the battlefield. Harold Gillies was an astonishing and trailblazing surgeon that set out one goal - to help soldiers that couldn’t function: they had their faces blown to bits, and the mistreatment by medical teams and regular people after being injured was strong. It is understanding that disfigurements to the degree of the soldiers would cause a reaction, but the treatment towards them was unfair at a time they needed kindness the most. These people did not ask to be put into battle, and Harold Gillies was one of few to actually want to help them.

Between the discussion of disability, medical advancements, personal lives, action of war, drama, public opinions, and lastly, the brief mention of Gillies being the foundation behind phalloplasty that is used today for gender affirming surgery, the history of ‘plastic surgery’ kept me on the edge of my seat. I happily read and sped through this when I could.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to read about the personal accounts of soldiers at the time dealing with these injuries, understanding the medical history of plastic surgery, and looking WW1 and WW2 from a different perspective.

barbaral78's review against another edition

4.25

hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

alyisthecraic's review against another edition

4.5

informative

kaimo007's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective slow-paced

bigfishlittlefish's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark hopeful informative sad medium-paced

mali99's review against another edition

3.0

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Rip Joseph Lister, you would have loved antibiotics

aceofcryptids's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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This was an absolutely fantastic book and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I definitely need to read more by this author and more about Sir Gillies himself!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

kathleenwho's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Very difficult subject matter, very beautifully and compassionately written. The audiobook is especially poignant as it's read by a descendent of the surgeon whose life and work is described in the book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail

lucyo's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced