athenany's review
4.0
This is a fascinating story of a real medical mystery and how it was identified (if not yet solved.) I would love a follow-up at some point.
alicebv1995's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting read
Really interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. You might want to keep a note with what all the abbreviations are though as you read. He uses a lot of abbreviations and a lot of them are really similar so it was hard to remember what they all stood for.
Really interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. You might want to keep a note with what all the abbreviations are though as you read. He uses a lot of abbreviations and a lot of them are really similar so it was hard to remember what they all stood for.
marianneiriss's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content and Terminal illness
Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
alissamargaret's review against another edition
4.0
*Audiobook* Really interesting. Prion diseases are pretty terrifying. This book goes into the history of Prion diseases and discusses how the research and researchers behind them. While the book title would make you think that it focuses solely on FFI, it covers others as well (such as “mad cow”). I would have liked a little more information about the family with FFI.
simlish's review
3.0
A book about prion diseases. It came out long enough ago that I wonder if there's been any advances, but prion research takes so long that I kind of doubt it. It was okay -- it took me about thirty pages to get hooked, but once I was past that, it was readable enough. I was in middle school when the mad cow outbreak happened, so it was something I was vaguely aware of, and it was very interesting to get more detail about both that specific exchange, and prion diseases in general.
What I found most interesting was the discovery of a matching genetic base pair that makes people more vulnerable to prion diseases, and the supposition that prion diseases caused the taboo against cannibalism, since cannibalism is the easiest way to get them and that matching base pair became a lot rarer after a big historic bottleneck.
I don't feel that I really grasped that much about prions, but I also got the impression that no one really does, so. At least I'm in good company.
What I found most interesting was the discovery of a matching genetic base pair that makes people more vulnerable to prion diseases, and the supposition that prion diseases caused the taboo against cannibalism, since cannibalism is the easiest way to get them and that matching base pair became a lot rarer after a big historic bottleneck.
I don't feel that I really grasped that much about prions, but I also got the impression that no one really does, so. At least I'm in good company.
dajna's review against another edition
4.0
Starting in the Veneto of 1700, D. T. Max takes us through the history of prion diseases. And it's an awful ride, let me tell you.
I lived through the Mad Cow epidemic of the '90s, and I knew about Kuru, but my interest sparked when I saw a video on YouTube about the italian family cursed by the fatal familial insomnia. These defective proteins are scary AF, and a terrible death sentence.
Every time I read something like this I stop to reflect how complex and fragile we humans are. What we consider a normal life is actually one of the biggest lottery winnings we could hope for.
I lived through the Mad Cow epidemic of the '90s, and I knew about Kuru, but my interest sparked when I saw a video on YouTube about the italian family cursed by the fatal familial insomnia. These defective proteins are scary AF, and a terrible death sentence.
Every time I read something like this I stop to reflect how complex and fragile we humans are. What we consider a normal life is actually one of the biggest lottery winnings we could hope for.