Fairuz ᥫ᭡.'s Reviews > Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

𐙚⋆˚✿˖° Okay… so Everything Is Tuberculosis was way more eye-opening than I expected, and somehow John Green made a book about disease feel like half memoir, half podcast, half TED talk 😭.

⭐️ 4 stars — super informative and honestly so engaging, but if you want a deep-dive type book, this isn’t that.

──★ ˙🧷 ̟ !!

I listened to this on audio (narrated by John himself) and ngl, that’s 100% the way to experience it. It felt like listening to a long Crash Course video with extra heart. The mix of history, Henry’s story, and John’s own commentary made the heavy stuff hit harder without ever feeling like homework.

Henry 🥺 — the absolute heart of this book. He’s not just a “case study,” he’s a person, and John centering his story gave the facts actual weight.

John’s commentary — chaotic but thoughtful. He slips between humor, rage at systemic injustice, and little poetic gut-punches in a way only he can.

The history bits — wild how tuberculosis shaped so much: fashion, art, even chairs (??). Like… what do you mean Adirondack chairs are TB culture.

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Moments I loved:
📖 John casually connecting TB to capitalism & injustice (and fully calling out greed 👏).
💔 The reminder that TB is still the deadliest infectious disease despite being curable since the 1950s. That line about “we know how to live in a world without tuberculosis, but we choose not to”?? Ouch.
💬 The way stats are always balanced with stories — it keeps you engaged instead of drowning in numbers.
🎧 His narration — so conversational it felt like he was ranting to me directly.

But—yeah—it’s surface level. It scratches at a lot of fascinating points without digging super deep into any one of them. Which isn’t bad, because it makes the book super accessible, but if you’re looking for a heavy, comprehensive TB deep dive, you’ll probably want to grab something else after this.

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At the end of the day, this book isn’t trying to be the ultimate tuberculosis textbook. It’s trying to make people care — and on that front, it delivers. It’s approachable, surprisingly funny at times, and still leaves you a little angry.

Everything really is tuberculosis… or at least connected to it somehow.