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Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal, illustrated by Adrian Teal

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Dead Ends!

Author
Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal, illustrated by Adrian Teal
Narrator
Hunter Johns
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date
14 October 2025
Run Time
2 hours 40 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Genre
Educational: History
$13.95

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal, read by Hunter Johns

From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about medicine's most fascinating failures and dead ends.

Beheadings! Bloodletting! Bodysnatching! Journey down a snaking road bristling with medicine’s most astonishing “dead ends.” Marvel at the diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were frequently useless, and often harmful, but that sometimes led doctors to discoveries that changed the world for the better.

Enjoy a whirlwind tour of the human body—from brain, to heart, to limbs—during which New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris will guide you through centuries of medical mistakes, festooned with riveting facts and pitch-perfect humor. Celebrate the flukes, flops, and failures that have given science a better understanding of our bodies and ways to treat them.

This fascinating book of foul-ups is sure to delight young readers, and inspire them to embrace their failures, too!

Critics Review

  • * Macabre, madcap, and surprisingly wholesome in its positivity.

    Kirkus Reviews, starred review

  • * An informative and entertaining dive into the successes and failures of medical history.

    School Library Journal, starred review

  • Alternates between informative, sensational, irreverent, and tongue-in-cheek (sometimes literally), resulting in engaging and engrossing reading. . . . Good luck keeping this gross one on library shelves once kids hear about it.

    Booklist

  • * Plague-Busters! is chock full of awesomely appalling medical history that is sure to delight audiences, and possibly even spark interest for some future pathologists.

    Shelf Awareness, starred review, on PLAGUE-BUSTERS!

See more reviews
  • * Engaging, informative, but also gross.

    SLJ Reviews, starred review, on PLAGUE-BUSTERS!

  • Fans of Albee's Poison will feel right at home with this darkly comedic piece of nonfiction.

    The Horn Book, on PLAGUE-BUSTERS!

  • A lively illustration of the perils of illness in the olden days.

    Kirkus Reviews, on PLAGUE-BUSTERS!

  • An entertaining, accessible, and satisfyingly disgusting history of six diseases . . . an equally worthy choice for researchers and browsing pathologists.

    Booklist, on PLAGUE-BUSTERS!

  • * Meticulously researched and compulsively readable.

    Publishers Weekly (starred review), on THE FACEMAKER

  • * An excellent biography of a genuine miracle worker.

    Kirkus Reviews (starred review), on THE FACEMAKER

  • This book is riveting. It is gruesome but it is also uplifting . . . What a triumph.

    Mary Roach, author of FUZZ and STIFF, on THE FACEMAKER

  • Atmospheric . . . The story it tells is one of abiding fascination.

    Jennifer Senior, The New York Times, on THE BUTCHERING ART

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Details
Author
Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal, illustrated by Adrian Teal
Narrator
Hunter Johns
Duration
2 hours 40 minutes
Release Date
14 October 2025
ISBN
9781547615049
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre
Educational: History

Synopsis

Bloomsbury presents Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal, read by Hunter JohnsFrom New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about medicine's most fascinating failures and dead ends.Beheadings! Bloodletting! Bodysnatching! Journey down a snaking road bristling with medicine’s most astonishing “dead ends.” Marvel at the diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were frequently useless, and often harmful, but that sometimes led doctors to discoveries that changed the world for the better.Enjoy a whirlwind tour of the human body—from brain, to heart, to limbs—during which New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris will guide you through centuries of medical mistakes, festooned with riveting facts and pitch-perfect humor. Celebrate the flukes, flops, and failures that have given science a better understanding of our bodies and ways to treat them.This fascinating book of foul-ups is sure to delight young readers, and inspire them to embrace their failures, too!

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