serenityfound's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Medical content, Blood, Gore, Colonisation, and Death
Moderate: Murder, Vomit, Mental illness, and Excrement
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
I was also unimpressed that Gajdusek's work with kuru is repeatedly referenced, but that he was a convicted child molester -- who sexually abused boys he adopted from the very region he studied, at that -- is never even touched upon, while several much lesser scandals among other cited researchers are at least noted in passing. Given the meandering path from relevance the last few chapters seem to take (and the respect Schutt tends to extend to the victims of both colonization and cannibalistic murderers), surely so much as a footnote might have been warranted.
Ultimately overall fairly disappointing, with poor organization, weak writing, and tentative conviction dulling what could have been a truly fascinating read, though I did like the earlier chapters on cannibalism in other animals and the discussion of the questionable accuracy of historic claims of cannibalistic practices around the world. I'm refraining from giving a star rating (at least for now) for that reason, but I'd say it probably sits somewhere between 2-3.
Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Classism, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Racism, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, Excrement, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, and Torture
lilbury's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Death, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Terminal illness, Body horror, Colonisation, Medical content, and Child death
Minor: Murder and Violence