Reviews with content warning for Gore - This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident by Adam Kay

49 reviews

scarletkeiller's review against another edition

emotional funny informative sad fast-paced

4.75

As close to five stars as it could get without hitting the mark. This was an exceptional read! Kay’s ability to write about such stressful, life-altering experiences with lightheartedness and wit is unbelievable. Following his journey through medicine and the increasing pressures of the responsibility of his job, I found myself very endeared to him.

He is fundamentally very honest about his thoughts and actions, even when they don’t paint him in the best light, so by the end, when you are reading a recollection of probably the greatest trauma of his life, it is devastating to say the least. The section ‘Aftermath’ had me in fits of tears, and for hours after finishing the book I was still reflecting on what I had read, and how it made me feel, and how special this was as an experience. The only reason I haven’t rated it five stars is that, despite how much I loved the way this was structured and paced, I felt that the ‘bonus entries’ at the end of the book softened the emotional impact of the climax, and took away the harshness of the blow it had dealt. Which sounds like an odd thing to complain about, but up until the final diary entry, despite being able to see the cracks forming in his mental health and his ability to cope with the stress of the job, you can see he still loves being in obs and gynae and he finds value and humour in the job regardless of the monumental toll it takes on his personal life and health. So when he is suddenly thrown into a situation so stressful and so traumatic that it eventually leads to his leaving medicine altogether, this is a huge shock and, naturally, I wanted to sit with the feelings it brought up for a while and really reflect on what I had read. It was clearly a huge deal for him to share this experience, and it was a shame that the extra bits at the end took away from its impact.

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leaflover's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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hjb_128's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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frozenheartv's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

4 stars
🌕🌕🌕🌕

🎯 Target audience

If you are interested in medical field but don’t want to delve too deep
If you want to see humorous yet poignant reflections on the realities of working within the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK
If you want to understand/know more stories related to obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN)

🧠 My thoughts
I learned a lot from this book due to its medical nature and I was not familiar with all of the terms. The book was undoubtedly funny and informative. Through this book, I understood much better the life of a doctor, the struggle, and the unfairness of the system and I respected this profession even more. Personally, I couldn’t ever imagine that I would be able to work in this field because I can’t deal with blood and medical trauma. The descriptions sometimes just shook me to the core. All due respect to all of the doctors and mothers out there in the world.

However, I have to point out that the humor in this book didn’t always work very well. I felt that sometimes the jokes weren’t funny at all, they were not suitable jokes to be made in the situations and I really didn’t understand why the author had to make those quite offensive jokes.

👍 What I like

Knowledge related to medical field
Easy to read
The stories are interesting

👎 What I don't like

Sometimes there were quite some bad jokes
I’d want to see more retrospective thoughts

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camoo3032's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.0

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toyin_'s review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

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tupsukorva's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative fast-paced

4.25

If you're someone who gets offended easily, don't risk it by reading this book. It doesn't poke fun at patients themselves too much (though sometimes it would be totally deserved), but it can trigger some. As a person who works in veterinary medicine, I found some obvious similarities to our line of work. In solidarity it brings me so much relief, and obviously it was hilarious!

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