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Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetuated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean
7 reviews
fiona_gs's review
4.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria
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
panthalassa's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Deadnaming, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Dysphoria
Minor: Addiction, Rape, and Abortion
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
livdelrosso's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Dysphoria
reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria
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