an arresting, informative, and deeply emotive read; john green’s everything is tuberculosis is a passionate and heart-driven look at how systemic racism, colonialism, capitalism, and individualism come together to uphold tuberculosis’ status as the world’s deadliest infection. listening to the audiobook, in particular, i was struck by the truth of green’s anger and sadness and care, and how evocatively this translated to accessible and digestible education. i only wish that it had also translated to a more direct call to action.

throughout the book, green cites his OCD is as a contributing factor to why he feels compelled to spend so much of his time talking and thinking about tuberculosis. as someone who understands this completely—and read this book for similar reason—i will not pretend that this book is an easy read, but i will note that perhaps if more of us made a habit of digging into the guts of our greatest fears, rather than turning our backs to them, the world would likely be a much, much better place.

in everything is tuberculosis, green digs into the guts of his fear of sickness, but doesn’t quite dig into the gut of his fear of systems. green is doing genuinely critical tuberculosis advocacy work, particularly in his direct action against johnson & johnson. this, of course, raises some questions: when the emotional knife of everything is tuberculosis is so razor sharp, why does green shy away from addressing what action would be required to dismantle the sort of monopolies that he understands are a leading cause in TB deaths globally? why is there no discussion—beyond abstraction—of dismantling and reforming a global healthcare system that serves profits over people? when we realise that the roots of ‘individual’ issues—whether we are discussing illness, crime, class, representation—are those same rotted institutions of oppression, we can only ‘fix’ these problems on a surface level. i know that it is terrifying that my country of origin and my bank account get to determine whether i live or die of a treatable illness, and green knows it too. he also knows that to tackle this, and to really dissect what this means, would be unpicking the loose thread that has fashioned our society.

still, what green does tackle in everything is tuberculosis, he does so with empathy and immense consideration. his interweaving of his own anecdotal experience with sickness tasteful in supporting his exploration of tuberculosis as an illness of oppression and inequity. the emotional thread that green hinges his storytelling on makes the more complex discussions around the infection itself more palatable, and thoroughly readable. where it doesn’t call for individual action, it does an exceptional job at activating individual hearts, and we can only hope that the latter might trigger the former regardless.

well-informed, impassioned, and full of spirit, john green’s everything is tuberculosis is a soul-stirring look at w present reality of tuberculosis that could have—and should have—been history. we must now all ask ourselves: how do we make it so?