I enjoyed this book, I found it totally absorbing, I will read others by this author now.

Many thanks to netgalley and Matt Morgan for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

With the amazing success of 'This is going to hurt' so many new medical memoirs are being released. As someone who admires doctors and their knowledge so much these books always fascinate me and this one was no different. It's set out in a great way with each chapter reflecting different organs in the body. It is the perfect amount of medical information without too much to overwhelm the reader. I really enjoyed this book.

Brilliant book.
I love this style of book and the honesty and often brutal style of writing. This happens every day for our doctors and nurses and this insight into it is fascinating!

This is a really interesting memoir, filled with the perfect amount of science and personal anecdote. I am a huge medical memoir fan and found this one as interesting and thought-provoking as many others.

I loved consuming this in audio format as it is read by Dr Morgan himself and gives the book a personal touch, like he is giving a speech at a convention. Because it is quite technical, I’m not sure I would have consumed the information as well in physical form.

His views on smoking were quite strong which may conflict readers, as a non-smoker I didn’t feel offended by the section but I can imagine smokers may object! Obviously, as a scientist he is speaking from experience and is using his voice to urge others to make better choices. I appreciated the section on CPR.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and loved learning about the ICU which is quite under-represented in NHS discussions in the media. It gives amazing insight into the ICU, the NHS generally and also the human body. Brilliant!

Thank you Netgalley for the early copy.

This was such a fascinating book made all the better by the audiobook being read by the author. It is a whistle stop tour of what is intensive care, what it entails and how it came to be. It is made more personal by the including of the cases of at least two patients in each chapter and you get a good amount of closer as to their stories as well as learning about the medical environment. This is a more personal and serious intensive care equivalent to this is going to hurt and I would recommend to everyone interested in learning more about our health service, both personal and professional.

Critical is a collection of stories from Matt Morgan's career as an ICU doctor, with each chapter he moves through areas of the body, discussing how problems with that part can lead to issues that end up with you in the ICU. There are sad moments and there are hopeful moments, and the whole thing is highly educational. I have read in some other reviews that this was more technical than people were expecting, I suppose that depends on your expectations going into this book and also your prior knowledge, but personally I didn't feel overwhelmed with technical knowledge.

I found Critical really interesting, it details so many real stories, and gives you so much information on treatments available and how much hard work goes in on an ICU ward. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author himself and I loved the way he spoke, you could tell he was passionate about his work and that made me so much more interested in reading about it.

This book really touched me, not all of the stories have happy endings. And you can really sense the frustration and sadness of Matt Morgan at points. It's clear that being an ICU doctor is hard, and this gave me a new appreciation for all the work the NHS does. I think this book has come at an excellent time when the ICU is rising to prominence. I can only imagine how difficult it has been for them dealing with the COVID19 crisis.

While I loved the main thread of this book I also really enjoyed the little asides that Matt Morgan shared, the information on public health, the history of the ICU, and medical research. All were given the right amount of time for me to really appreciate their importance, but they didn't feel like they detracted from the important of the ICU and the cases being highlighted.

Fully recommend and the audio was great!

This book was incredible, a fantastic insight into the life of a doctor. The individual chaptets, dealing with various aspects of the medical world, are intertwined brilliantly with patient cases which help to illustrate the points being made.

This is both the incredibly interesting tale of one man's fantastic career, but also a great general overview of the NHS, medicine and the great variety of patient's and their individual needs.

I couldn't recommend this more, the only slight downside being that due to the issues with the Netgalley shelf app and it's problems with audiobooks, I didn't get to listen to all of it!

I went to listen to this book on the new Netgalley app this evening and found the book was no longer there. Unlike ebooks there is no way to send the audiobook to myself to prevent it being lost to me before archive date. Therefore I can not listen to it because it's been archived.

I received an audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and what struck me the most was how well performed the reading was. Matt Morgan speaks clearly and compassionately about the medical industry and how certain cases have shaped its development as a whole while other cases he experienced personally shaped himself as a medical professional. His passion and compassion shine through in his writing and vocal performance in a way that makes the science of critical care accessible and understandable. While focusing on a different organ or system for each chapter he breaks down how medicine has developed the technologies and routines it uses today through relatable patient stories and personal experiences. It’s an interesting listen / read for anyone but I can imagine particularly so for those with a deeper interest in the field of medicine.

This was a really interesting and informative medical memoir.

I love these types of books. This one was well written and very interesting. There was a lot of moving moments and some very important take home messages.

I do wish this book focused more on Matt's own experiences and stories from his time in ICU rather than the history of medical treatments and interventions.

There was a lot of medical jargon which was difficult to read at times. I learnt so much but I would have loved to have read more about this personal experiences and stories from ICU

The stories which were mentioned in this book were definitely sad and moving.

I also loved how the book was structured around different parts of the body.

Overall, if you love medical memoirs I'm sure you'll love this book.

TW: real life descriptions of death, illness, injury and trauma of which some are quite graphic

I love an audiobook in the car - and this one tells great stories about life in intensive care as a doctor and also the history of some of the treatments - will definitely recommend to medical students

I listened to the audiobook version of this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster audio for providing me with a copy to review.

I’m always interested in this sort of book so was looking forward to listening to it.

I found it very accessibly written and clearly narrated. However, his voice did make me feel sleepy! He doesn’t have much animation in his voice and at times it was difficult to concentrate on what he was saying.

The work that goes on in the ICU is amazing. I liked the fact that he included some of the history behind it too.
Each chapter explores a different part of the body and real cases are described. To me, this made it more relatable and showed his care for his patients. There’s happy outcomes and sad outcomes, the book isn’t all doom and gloom.

The author is clearly extremely knowledgeable and passionate about his work.

I found this a fascinating insight into critical care and would recommend it for anyone interested in medicine or even if you’re just looking to read something different.
If you’re already in the medical profession you may find the explanations a bit tedious.

This is a great audiobook. Good narration and the story is captivating, and feels so important right now during these times.

This is my first foray into the world of audio books and what a great way to start. Unusual at first then my brain got into the habit of creating the picture to go along with the description. Matt Morgan is a wonderful narrator as well as critical care doctor. Learnt all sorts of things about ICU which I didn’t know, even having spent time on an ICU ward myself. You still connect with the people described in the book even though you are not physically reading it.

The book itself lets us see behind the scenes of a critical care unit and the things doctors and nurses have to deal with on a daily basis. These are often heartbreaking but also sometimes heart warming. The fact that doctors not only have to deal with what is in the best interests of the patient but also the often emotional and possibly irrational feelings of theirs relatives.

A great, informative read.

Who has not thought MORE, recently, about Intensive Care and what goes on in there for both patient and medic? In a time where intensive care has expanded due to COVID, and has taken over operating theatres, recovery areas and other wards, this audiobook caught my eye to learn first hand what goes on in these areas of the hospital. This book was published in 2019 so of course it does not mention the pandemic we are currently experiencing. Instead the author tells us about the history of intensive care, respirators and techniques, using patients he has treated. His aim, is to potentially prevent us or loved ones ending up needing intensive care, by telling us how to spot potentially life threatening symptoms.

I chose the audiobook from NetGalley, to provide an honest review, as I felt it would be interesting to hear the narrator read his own words. At first I felt Matt Morgan was a little slow and deliberate in his narration, but once I was used to his lilting voice I relaxed into his pace and found him calm and reassuringly - as I imagine his colleague and patients feel too!

An interesting read, informative, pertinent, recommended.

For some reason, I prefer taking in my non-fiction books in audio format. Maybe that's because it is a bit like listening to a teacher, or a TEDx talk that lasts for about six hours – or maybe it's because the narrator actually knows how to pronounce the long and complicated terminally I just scan over with my eyes, ha! So when @netgalley announced they were now hosting audiobooks, I was so excited.

I immediately requested Dr Matt Morgan's CRITICAL. The book is a tour of the human body, each chapter focusing on different part of the anatomy, (circulatory, gut, lungs, etc.), as Dr Morgan talks about the crucial role intensive-care medicine plays in our modern healthcare system. The book starts with the beginnings of intensive-care with the Copenhagen polio epidemic of 1952, however, listening to the book in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly powerful. If it wasn't for the pioneering work in the early fifties, who knows what the daily death toll would be in the midst of the global coronavirus outbreak.

As with all medical books, I can't help but think of just how wonderful our NHS is here in the UK. We ask so much of them, and yet they keep on giving, despite the the fact that as Matt Morgan discusses its soul-destroying to work for a machine that is effectively working against its very core parts. My partner is a medic, and him being back in the NHS is such a contrast to when we were in Australia – he still worked hard, but in Oz there was certainly more of a work-life balance.

CRITICAL is a fantastic insight into the everyday workings not only of a healthcare system and profession, but also the humans that form its backbone.

My only criticism is that although Dr Matt Morgan is a fantastic doctor, he's not a natural audibook narrator, but that's a small note on such a fantastic book.

Fascinating insight into the life of a critical care consultant. Covering how the science of medicine has changed, how our reliance on legal recreational drugs such as nicotine and alcohol can affect our body and also strays into the emotive debate as to whether we should all receive the treatment we need; regardless of whether we contributed to our current ailment. Each chapter covers a particular organ of the body and includes memorable stories from the various patients he has helped treat over the many year. And it’s really enlightening. Definitely one I’d recommend!

Such an informative book covering intensive hospital care, i learnt quite a bit whilst listening to different patient stories.

I really enjoyed this audiobook.

Having Dr Matt Morgan narrating this book was a great listen. He held no punches and taught me a lot.
This is such an informative book, which I thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
The work the NHS do really is amazing and listening to this book really proves that.

I was really looking forward to listening to this book and I managed to get an hour in before I just had to stop. The content of the book was not a problem, it was interesting and informative and really, it was everything I thought it would be.

The issue was the audio. The reader, presumably Matt Morgan, could not have sounded more patronising if he had been trying. His voice was monotonous and droned on and on and added to this, the fact he was reading at a speed suitable for a 6 year old, I just couldn’t take it any longer.

I should imagine that the rest of this book is just as enlightening as the beginning, but in order to find out I shall definitely be buying it and reading it myself.