alyssatuininga's review

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dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

 Fascinating book documenting the dark side of science. This book looks at things like Nazi doctors, grave robbing anatomists, the Tuskeegee experiment, etc.  I knew many of the stories in the book already but many of the questions that this book raised were super interesting and really made me think about these issues. I really enjoy Sam Kean’s writing (although I enjoyed The Violinst’s Thumb more). There was definitely some difficult subject matter in this book but it was well worth a read (although I will admit I skipped the animal torture chapter). 

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silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


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siobhanward's review

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informative medium-paced

3.5

 
Usually these kinds of books don't get to me, but this one had some moments that just put me on edge. This book is filled with graphic descriptions, so please check TWs before reading, since a good deal of it could be triggering.

All that to say, this was an interesting read overall. I appreciated that the chapters were fairly long, which meant an in-depth look at the topics at hand, rather than short, disjointed pieces. I will say, however, that a good deal of this felt like an advertisement for Kean's podcast - so many footnotes just ended with "for more info, check out episode x of my podcast" which got annoying pretty quickly.

Overall, Kean handles a number of sensitive topics with respect - the topics he chose were interesting and seemingly well-researched, and I enjoyed learning more about things I only had a general knowledge of before (including what an ice pick is apparently, because I realized while reading, I always pictured ice axes before...).

 

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gk1412's review

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective fast-paced

3.5


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ejs22's review

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funny informative medium-paced

4.5

Interesting and well-researched! Kean’s writing is witty and engaging. Some of the content can be a little bit upsetting, but much of it is handled in a tactful way. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend against only reading the chapters that sound interesting to you, but all of the chapters were interesting to me, so I’m not sure if the advice is sound! Each chapter is its own story exploring its own crimes or misdeeds, which makes the book very episodic in nature and super conducive to stop/start reading. 
Note: The whole purpose of this book is to condemn unethical actions, and it sympathizes with victims before it does anything else. If you’re worried about despicable acts being justified, don’t be! 

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lindapatin's review

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challenging informative sad medium-paced

3.5

Trigger warnings -- human experimentation, and an entire chapter on animal cruelty.  The information is still important and interesting, but those particular topics were very hard to get through

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kyliebloch's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.0


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monstersinspace's review

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.5


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arijones91's review

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5


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phoebemurtagh's review

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dark funny sad medium-paced

3.5

3.5 stars

They some things shouldn't be attempted by the faint of heart or squeamish. As a squeamish person myself, I'd like to refine that: you can most certainly attempt, but you might need to skim through the physical descriptions of how to perform an ice pick lobotomy.
This was a good collection of scientists gone bad: some of the stories were disturbing and familiar ones I'd already heard, while some were disturbing and new. My only criticisms would be that while such a book must necessarily take a dark sense of humor, I found the author's attempts at levity in the face of evil just a little irreverent sometimes. More disappointingly, though, the author refers to bunk science as "voodoo" in at least one place; it's a small thing, but perpetuating a stereotype that African disaporic religious traditions that developed as a result of American slavery are somehow 'less valid' and the equivalent of bad science is below the mark for any journalist.
All in all, I preferred The Disappearing Spoon, but this is a good book, too.

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