A review by jibraun
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Did not finish book. Stopped at 23%.

slow-paced

0.0

I DNF'd this book at the 40% mark. Steven Johnson ostensibly sets out to write about the 1854 cholera outbreak in the Soho neighborhood of London and how two local individuals were able to prove that cholera was spread by contaminated water -- instead of other theorized sources. This is not everyone's cup of tea, but it struck my fancy as a topic. Unfortunately, that is all Johnson could achieve. He just did not have enough material for a book, so instead of settling for writing a longform magazine article, Johnson repeats himself multiple times sometimes on back-to-back pages to try to increase his word count. He also goes on unrelated tangents spending several pages talking about anything but the 1854 cholera outbreak. Beyond that, the book is a bore. Johnson tries writing this in a narrative fashion, but his prose is just not good enough to make it work. 0 stars.