Reviews with content warning for Vomit - A Taste for Poison

Enjoyable book geared toward the layman, this describes poisons in terms of biochemistry. Alas, I have always been poor at understanding chemistry so I didn’t really get some of the more complicated sections. However, the author used similes that made it easier to picture what he meant, such as referring to the destruction within a cell as a mess of Christmas lights, attached in a string and hopelessly tangled.

He also shows how the chemical can be used for good - atropine is toxic but can be an antidote in controlled doses - and for evil, citing poisoning cases from the past up to our time period. (While he explains the destruction that would result from injecting bleach, I was disappointed that he didn’t mention Trump’s crazy suggestion that this might stop COVID.)

I liked the book a lot but the similes were used far too often. In one single page in the polonium chapter, he refers to its effect on the body a wrecking ball, a right hook from a bare-knuckle prizefighter, and the Vandals sacking Rome.

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horizonous's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

3.5

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

3 stars- The book was interesting, but because of the way it was set up, especially in audiobook format let your attention wander at the beginning of the chapter when he was talking about the history of the poison, and only begin to pay attention at the true crime and "how it kills" parts at the end of each chapter. Which means you'd miss things. It was also a bit overall technical. But it was informative.

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idun_aurora's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

5.0

I listened the audiobook through in one sitting while crocheting socks, feeling much like Miss Marple. Well-written and thoroughly researched!

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mercurialbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperNorth and Neil Bradbury for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.

This book is brilliant, it would be difficult to find another that fits in with my non-fiction reading interests more accurately. Neil Bradbury is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and has written an excellent twist on the dry biochemistry textbook. Combining current biochemical knowledge, medical history and true crime I found each section absolutely fascinating and spent far too much time deep-diving the topics to eagerly discover more information.

The eleven poisons are each given an exploratory chapter. There are stories of their origin and discovery, historical cases of their use, both as a poison and a medicine, and then the biochemical breakdown of how and why they work within the body. The authors sense of humour is also threaded throughout with a very British sarcasm and wit, which absolutely kept me smiling despite the macabre subject matter.

Go buy this book!

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