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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetuated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean
11 reviews
churrocaitie's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Trafficking
boop123's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder
Moderate: Pedophilia, Transphobia, Antisemitism, and War
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, and Pandemic/Epidemic
siobhanward's review against another edition
3.5
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...).
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, and Medical content
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Colonisation, and Dysphoria
Minor: Antisemitism and Abortion
gk1412's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation
mfrisk's review against another edition
3.0
I note this because while I find the overall subject interesting and also important in terms of the fields of science, medicine, and fields which intersect with these areas I don’t feel like these stories were given the appropriate weight and critical lens. As many reviewers mention inappropriate terminology is used for a variety of marginalized populations within this book and I often felt the author was trying to get a laugh out of us (the readers) more than they were working to connect the story to their larger point of morality and ethics. The podcast plugs were annoying but not as egregious as the lack of depth certain stories were given when they covered very sensitive topics. It may not have hurt for their to be additional commentary from other folks especially in stories where marginalized populations were involved and that was only touched on a surface level. I’ve listened to the podcast as well after reading some stories in this book and it has similar issues seen in this book.
Also want to add this book could have used a more central defining element or at least narrowing down to specific field or some other way to make this more focused. It often was confusing that the stories felt so disconnected and the conclusion doesn’t quite pull together the ideas enough.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
phoebemurtagh's review against another edition
3.5
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.
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
kbergsten's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
clarabooksit's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism
akazzy8's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
While there are many content warnings, I would mention they are stated in more of a detached academic fashion. While there are horrible portions, it is not always written like a story, so readers detachment from some of these acts make this book less "graphic". This certainly is not to say that these warnings aren't still there!readundancies's review against another edition
4.0
Let it be known that this is not for the faint of heart. A lot of the more disillusioning and heavy content is covered in a very clinical way, and it can take a bit of getting used to. There are some really coldhearted individuals out there and this book highlights some of the most infamous of the lot.
It’s so interesting though. I was living for this content. The number of times I said What the fuck?!? while reading was too many.
At this point I should probably mention that I read this non-chronologically. It’s written in a way that each chapter is directly connected to and leads into the next. But, I was feeling out of sorts and decided to switch things up and read all over the place with respect to chapters. I didn't find it even mildly disconcerting, so I'd say if you wanted to read chapters out of order, it's very doable.
My favourite chapters in no particular order include:
- Piracy: The Buccaneer Biologist
- Slavery: The Corruption of the Flycatcher
- Grave-Robbing: Jekyll & Hyde, Hunter & Knox
- Murder: The Professor and the Janitor
- Ambition: Surgery for the Soul
- Malpractice: Sex, Power, and Money
- Fraud: Superwoman.
If you're looking for a science-based non-fiction read with some true crime flair to the writing, I definitely recommend this.
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Dysphoria