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Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
9 reviews
heyjude1965's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Animal cruelty
sonygaystation's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer and Child death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, and Abortion
balrogfemme's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
jetpackdracula's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abortion
kingweirdo's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
aeudaimonia's review against another edition
4.0
The book's content and prose earns a full five stars; the structure, however, left me somewhat dissatisfied. Blum organizes the book by poison (with chapters titled "Wood Alcohol," "Cyanides," etc) but tells the narrative more or less chronologically--an ambitious structure, with varying degrees of success. Most straightforward are the earlier chapters, when the Medical Examiner's Office was in its infancy. As the book progresses, however, Blum adds shorter anecdotes about Prohibition and the bootlegging business, New York street gangs, and poison cases unrelated to that chapter's nominal poison but chronologically relevant. All these narrative threads end up obscuring the heart of the chapter; I often wondered, "How did we get here?" regarding information that I'd otherwise have eaten up without a second thought.
Otherwise, though, this was masterfully crafted and a fantastic introduction to the period.
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
cnidariar3x's review against another edition
4.5
I've read this twice over two years. Both times were a 4.5 for me.
I learned SO MUCH and really came to appreciate just how forensic medicine was essentially developed by two guys working on a shoestring budget against many odds. There's an appreciation for the medical system that derives from having read this book, but on the same hand, one will learn about all the
The book has several interweaving themes throughout the chapters, and if I have one criticism in the book, it can sometimes feel unfocused.
If one can handle reading about medical content, experimentation, and alcoholism, or are interested in this specific history in general, I can't recommend this book enough.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Murder
Minor: Cancer and Abortion
astropova's review
4.5
Graphic: Death and Medical content
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Child death and Suicide
The animal cruelty and death are not done/described for the purposes of being cruel or evil, but there are several clinical descriptions of experimentation on animals that leads to their deaths.junefish's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Suicide
Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit