Book Review: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
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I just finished reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green and I’ll be reviewing it and giving some thoughts on the book in this blog post.
A photo of a person holding an iPhone with the audiobook version of John Green’s latest nonfiction release, Everything is Tuberculosis on screen.
Photo by Karola G. Edit with Canva by Payton Hayes.
Amazon’s synopsis for John Green’s latest nonfiction release, Everything is Tuberculosis is as follows:
Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.
In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis. (Green)
Word association is a simple linguistic game; one person says a word, and the other responds with the first idea that comes to mind. But when the prompt is tuberculosis, the chain of associations is seemingly endless—Adirondack chairs, tragic glamour, poets, poverty, pharmaceuticals, injustice, nature, high heels, shame, potatoes, the Brontë sisters—and the list goes on; everything ties back to tuberculosis.
In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green expertly weaves together threads of the past and present, by detailing the disease’s history, recounting his own personal experience with illness, and amplifying the stories of those fighting tuberculosis. Henry, a young tuberculosis patient in Sierra Leone, becomes the catalyst for Green’s compelling exploration of the world’s deadliest infectious disease—an inquiry that interlaces literary references, the disease’s long and complex history, and a sharp critique of the socio-political forces that have allowed tuberculosis to endure despite being fully curable.
Often dismissed as a malady of the past, tuberculosis continues to claim more lives than any other infectious disease, killing 1.5 million people each year. Today, tuberculosis is curable, but persists because of barriers such as invisibility, inaccessibility, and inequity. The book opens in Sierra Leone, where Green meets Henry and as their friendship grows, he sees firsthand the systemic structures perpetuating the prevalence of tuberculosis.What begins as a simple connecting of dots quickly evolves into a global issue worth obsessing over.
Although his exploration into the exploitative, capitalistic structures of the global healthcare system is rather surface level, Green does a phenomenal job of raising awareness and showing readers why they should care. Though he is outraged, his tone remains respectful, focused, and determined. Rather than despairing, Green provides specific, sustainable solutions for this multifaceted issue. Echoed throughout the book is the expression “Tuberculosis is wherever the cure isn’t and the cure is wherever Tuberculosis isn’t.” Green’s simple, yet effective refrain transforms a complex issue into a clear and empowering mantra.
Green nimbly traces the socio-political connections between cause and cure with his distinctive empathetic, and informative voice. Green’s vast knowledge and unwavering compassion for those battling tuberculosis is evident in each page and his tactful braiding of anecdotes, case studies, and research results in a profoundly compelling narrative that reflects the book’s central message: accessibility is the key to unlocking a world without tuberculosis.
When it comes to the word tuberculosis, adjectives such as thrilling, inspiring and enlightening, may not top the list of words that come to mind, but this book can be described just so. Through diligent research and compassionate prose, John Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis is an artfully woven tapestry of past and present, illustrating humanity’s dark history with tuberculosis and illuminating the deadliest infectious disease in the world.
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green: ☆☆☆☆☆ (5/5 Stars)
If I had to assign this book a rating between one star and five stars, I think I’d have to go with the latter for this book. I don’t give five-star ratings often—especially for nonfiction books, but I think Green has done a phenomenal job of raising awareness and educating readers about Tuberculosis in an accessible and compelling way, inspiring empathy in and empowering his audience with various solutions, and criticizing the structures that have allowed the world’s deadliest, curable illness to endure, all without coming off as pretentious or pessimistic.
Bibliography
Hayes, Payton. “Everything Is Tuberculosis Audiobook” (Photo used in edited image). November 1, 2025.
Hayes, Payton. “A photo of a person holding an iPhone with the audiobook version of John Green’s latest nonfiction release, Everything is Tuberculosis on screen” (Edited photo used in post and thumbnail). November 4, 2025.
Green, John. “Everything Is Tuberculosis.” Synopsis on Amazon. Accessed November 1, 2025.
G, Karola. “Person Holding a Phone” Pexels photo, Jul 27, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2025.
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This blog post was written by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’ role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live.
Author: Payton Hayes. | Published On: November 4, 2025. | Last Updated: November 4, 2025.
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