Loved this book almost as much as Kang's first title - Quackery. Look forward to other titles. A solid title to both inform and entertain

As a science teacher I found this to be an interesting history of illnesses and epidemics. It did not require a medical background to understand. I found parts fascinating and parts slightly gross. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found the subject matter really interesting. The book was well written and easy to understand. I highly recommend this book.

"Patient Zero" is a great book for fans of medical history and people wanting to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic by studying how society has handled outbreaks in the past. You'll learn in some chapters that people have fought public health mandates such as masks many times before.
Each chapter, covering a different disease, includes a mixture of science, human experience, and fun facts you'll want to keep sharing with the unfortunate person sitting nearest to you.
I was especially blown away from reading the chapter on COVID-19 as it does an excellent job of outlining the start of the pandemic which was an incredibly confusing time as it occurred but obvious to see how poorly it was handled in retrospect.
If you enjoy this book, I recommend "Quackery" by the same authors.

A very interesting read! I truly enjoyed it. It was a bit difficult to read in this format but the book was so informative and, dare I say fun

I love a good micro-history. More so if it's about medical maladies! Patient Zero doesn't disappoint. This book is thoroughly researched, providing detailed but still accessible content.

I truly loved this book! I've worked in public health for 16 years and enjoy reading about health-related things in my free time (nerdy, I know). The visual appeal of the book's picture and other graphic elements made the material more digestible for the reader as well. It was doubly interesting reading this while living through a global pandemic.

Interesting and informative! Brief vignettes make the information-lightness of the book more a feature than a bug. A fun, if somewhat gross at times, entre into epidemiology for new readers.

Since finishing college, I have been on a nonfiction kick. Usually I pick up books pertaining to historical events or people but lately I have been into the history of health and medicine.

I loved "Quackery" and was not disappointed with their latest book. "Patient Zero" goes through the long history of diseases and outbreaks. How they started, how they were treated, and how/if they were cured or eradicated. The two present a writing form that makes the history, facts, and technical knowledge accessible and understandable for all readers. The added humor is a great bonus as well!

I enjoy Kang and Pedersen's writing styles and will continue to pick up their books as long as they continue to write them.

The book gave a great overview of historical diseases. It was informative and doesn't require a scientific background to understand what is being shared.. Folks who are particularly sensitive may find the book to be too much, but I think most people will find the book enjoyable, if a bit gross.

3.5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised at how this book was so delightfully funny and informative with a topic that could be seen as very morbid. If you’re interested in reading about epidemics, then this book is definitely for you. Each chapter, which feel more like short vignettes, introduces a different disease and the epidemic that quickly followed their discovery. I also enjoyed that the book did a pretty good job of addressing environmental, cultural, social, economic, and political factors that influence how infectious diseases are spread and managed. Overall a fun and informative read.

ARC given by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

It was my pleasure to feature this title in my annual holiday gift books guide for The Globe & Mail national newspaper (Saturday Nov 20, 2021 print edition; also on AppleNews), organized thematically by giftee archetype. Feature online at related link.

A fascinating, graphically beautiful, and approachable trip through the history of numerous major human infectious diseases. I learned new concepts from this book, which I found to be both intriguing and easy to read. This book does an excellent job of addressing social and environmental, economic, and political elements that influence the spread and management of infectious illnesses. The pictures and comment sections are fun and informational, and they help to break up the book. The book's tone was colloquial, which I liked. A lot of the information felt like trivia, with cool facts you could tell your friends and family. Excellent nonfiction with color images and an easy-to-understand descriptive history of many of the world's most infamous diseases. It was enjoyable to read, which is difficult to do when writing about serious health-related matters. A fantastic asset to any library suitable for young adults and up. It's the ideal present for everyone who enjoys learning about different diseases' history.

4 stars

A thoroughly enjoyable, visually appealing, & approachable tour through the history of several major infectious diseases affecting humans. I learned new things & found this book very interesting & easy to read.

[What I liked:]

•The pictures, graphics, and informative sidebars help break up the text into digestible chunks & provide appealing visual aids. The layout makes the book easy to read.

•Reading about the 1900 Bubonic Plague outbreak in San Francisco reminded me so much of Covid-19: public health officials’ attempts to prevent the spread being hampered by politicians who denied the existence of a problem because of economic concerns, rampant racism, & intentional spread of disinformation. This book does a great job of addressing environmental, cultural, social, economic, & political factors that influence how infectious diseases are spread & managed.

•This book covers a representative range of infectious diseases, including prions, viruses, parasites, & fungal & bacterial infections. There were ones I’ve read about in detail before like Yersinia Pestis & Ebola, & ones I wasn’t as familiar with like Legionnaires diseases, along with new (to me) information about the 1918 flu pandemic & rabies. I enjoyed the story-telling structure that shows how researchers & health officials go about identifying new pathogens & developing public health policy & treatments.

•In addition to case studies of certain diseases, there are sections covering related topics like germ theory, autopsy, zoonoses, & vaccines. These are woven into the narrative to provide more insight as the topics come up.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•I actually have no major complaints or critiques of this book!

CW: discussions of racism, sexism, & classism; moderately graphic descriptions of diseases

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I eagerly anticipated this book and was not disappointed. I have an interest and adequate knowledge of diseases (I work in healthcare/public health and am in graduate school studying epidemiology), but I still learned quite a lot from Patient Zero. The illustrations and sidebars are interesting, informative, and break up the book nicely. I enjoyed the almost conversational tone of the book. A lot of the information felt like trivia, tidbits you could share with family and friends. One of my favorite chapters is the tuberculosis one, as that is the area I'm currently involved in. I recently attended a virtual event when the book came out and the authors talked a lot about their writing process and went into a little more depth on specific chapters/topics. Overall, a great little reference book that is easily digestible, educational, and entertaining. Highly recommend.

Excellent nonfiction with color illustrations along with an understandable descriptive history of many of the famous diseases that have terrorized the globe. Table of contents organizes, and the intro to each chapter sets goals, which is a format which lends itself to a self study course in disease. Extensive sources (pp.358-391) are arranged by chapter. With the Covid pandemic in its second year, this title is loaded with facts and information, without being heavily academic. I found it entertaining, which is hard to achieve when writing about serious subjects. Great addition to any library serving young adults and above. Perfect gift for those who savor information about the history of disease.

Complete Discussion on Plagues through History
This book is not meant for those with weak stomachs. I am usually not phased by medical things, yet this book has pegged my creep-meter. This covers many sordid plagues that have assaulted mankind. There are complete descriptions of the causative agent and illustrations of either the agent or what it does to the human body. I had gotten to where I avoided the illustrations, but the descriptions creeped me out just as badly. It was all very interesting, but I was careful in how much I read per day. Later, in discussing more modern diseases, the sidebars were much more palatable. There are parts of the book that take an obvious political position that I found disturbing. For an author to color their non-fiction work with obvious political favoritism makes me wonder about the content of this book. Since I only found this to be so in covering more modern epidemics and pandemics, the book only lost 1 star. But that political pandering made me think less of the authors and this book. This is just a warning to readers of this book to look behind the curtain as there is political prejudice at work. I would say that this book is a 'must read' for anyone with Hollywood aspirations or anyone who enjoys true horror. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

With the pandemic, I've been curious about the history of other pandemic diseases. There have been some comparisons in the media to the 1918 flu pandemic, particularly in terms of mitigation efforts (social distancing, masks, etc). When vaccines came out I started wondering about polio. When I saw Patient Zero I knew I had to read it.

While it read a bit more like a textbook than I would have liked, it was very interesting. I learned about some diseases I had never heard of before and definitely more about outbreaks of diseases that I know of but not in any detail. Several times while reading this book, I thought that the material would be great for trivia night at the local pub.

In addition to chapters about specific illnesses like Mad Cow Disease, the plague, and yellow fever, there are sections detailing advances in sciences - like autopsies and germ theory. There are also some sections on how historical moments spread diseases. The section on the Columbian Exchange was interesting. It discusses how diseases that the explorers were basically immune to spread to indigenous who had never been exposed. If you write time-traveling fiction, this might be a topic of interest to you.

There's a section on vaccines as well as polio that kind of satisfied my curiosity about polio. I think I need some social commentary to fully satisfy it (I'm curious about what I think was ready acceptance of the polio vaccine when the COVID-19 vaccine has had so much controversy).

Since I work with a lot of parasitologists, I was happy to see mention of some parasitic diseases. I've written a little bit about schistosomiasis for work but I didn't realize that one of the species of parasitic worm that causes that disease could also cause bladder cancer.

My favorite chapter, and maybe the one I was most looking forward to, was the last chapter (and not because it was the end of the book) which instead of being about the beginnings of smallpox it was about the end of smallpox. By the time I was old enough for a smallpox vaccine, it had already been eradicated from the U.S. so I do not have the telltale scar left by the vaccination.

This book covers so many topics that it would make a great go-to resource as a quick and informative starting place. I know it gave me an idea for the book I want to write when I retire.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Tuesday Nov. 16 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2021/11/two-new-books-in-science-nonfiction.html

Definitely a morbidly hilarious novel about many "not so funny" Patient Zeros. While reading, I was repeatedly drawn to the reoccurring "themes" hidden within the term Pandemic - ranging from your next door neighbor's to the POTUS at the time putting their two-cents in about why pandemics occur and who is to blame. But the quick-witted, through way the diseases are researched and explained by both Lydia Kang & Nate Pederson make this non-fiction book an easy read. And I am so glad that medicine has improved over time - I just couldn’t fathom taking a blood bath instead of my usual bubble bath! 😆 This is my 1st Non-Fiction read from Netgalley that I am reviewing and this is an easy 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book!

This was such an interesting book that is super timely. I learned a lot and would recommend it to macabre readers of nonfiction!