Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

Solid read and well-researched.

An interesting compilation of knowledge about the anthropological history of rabies as well as great information about the scientific journey to a vaccine. I would have preferred the inclusion of more scientific information in different species as well as some personal experiences from those affected by rabies due to losses or close calls. But I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject or morbid curiosity in general.

“It is the most fatal virus in the world, a pathogen that kills nearly 100 percent of its hosts in most species, including humans.” Rabid is all about the most fatal virus known to science, Rabies. This discusses the history of the disease, the cultural impact of it, and how it has been handled throughout the years. This even covers how rabies may have impacted things like Greek myths, zombie flicks, vampirism, and werewolves. While I knew the basics about rabies, I never understood how deadly it was and how long it has been around. This whole book was just packed with new information for me. From the beginning I was hooked on learning about rabies throughout history and how the people dealt with it and how it possibly created new mythos in their communities, i.e. vampirism. One of the big things I learned about rabies though was the symptoms and how it is transmitted by different animals. I knew bats and dogs could transmit rabies, but not the prevalence of it or how other creatures could easily spread rabies, like raccoons, but I should have known this since I was always warned as a child to be careful of rabid wild creatures, but never a stray dog who is actually the more dangerous one. The other fascinating thing about this book that I learned so much about was Louis Pasteur and his breakthroughs in vaccinations. I had heard of Pasteur before reading this book, but I never knew the extent of his contribution to medical history. He not only came up with a rabies vaccine, but also anthrax and cholera. I never knew the extent of his contribution and it was just fascinating how his discoveries eventually lead to him creating a rabies vaccine. I really want to read more about Pasteur now to really understand how revolutionary he was to medicine. Overall, this was a fascinating look at a deadly virus. I learned so much from this and think the authors did a great job at portraying the dangers of the virus and how it has affected animals, without becoming too grotesque in the graphic details of the animal deaths. Now I want to look into reading about other kinds of diseases and how they were dealt with throughout history. TW: graphic animal deaths; medical experiments on animals; racism; colonialism; death;

Non fiction exploring the history and cultural impact of rabies, a deadly old virus with high mortality rate, who remained for a long time an incurable and mysterious disease. This was a read for the morbidly curious book club, and this was a very interesting and informative read for me, as I didn’t have a lot of knowledge of the rabies disease. I learned a lot in this book about the origins of rabies, its terrible effects on the body (like hydrophobia). That being said, the authors did a good job vulgarising the subject, and the writing was overall very engaging. I particularly loved the cultural impact of this terrifying virus on us humans, specifically the impact of Rabies in literature and how authors have been inspired by it. The historical overview of the ancient world and medieval times was my favourite part of the historical overview. The chapter on the survivors was also very interesting and with a tense narrative that felt like reading fiction. Some chapters were less interesting to me, with some superfluous descriptions and to be honest some of the more scientific (biology and chemistry) details of the virus went a bit over my head. Overall an interesting though not perfect read for me I’m looking for the other picks by the morbidly curious book club.

Overall a fascinating and highly informative read (these authors did their research thoroughly!), I felt however a lot of material was unnecessary and unrelated (vampires, Dr Jekyll). I loved the chapters that focused on rabies and Louis Pasteur: they were perfect.