Rating: 5.0
Last Breath is a fascinating read into the physiological realities of a person on the brink of death. I liked the detail and depth Stark put into this book.
Each chapter of Last Breath is dedicated to a different adventure and a different malady. For instance, in chapter 5 a young man hits the ocean on his sailboat and forgets to take fresh food. Peter Stark details what happens to your body when scurvy sets in as well as a short history of the disease. In Chapter 8 a young couple head to a secluded beach in Australia where the reader learns about the sting of a box jellyfish. Peter Stark did an awesome job making these stories highly readable and interesting. They are part adventure story and part science lesson. And he covers a lot! Everything from hypothermia to heatstroke is covered. He writes about the bends as well as mountain sickness. Some of these stories have happy endings for the characters involved but many don't. I appreciated the realism.
Taken from the blurb: 'Readers will shiver with a man lost in the snowy woods, suffering from hypothermia and tearing off his clothes as he’s burning up from the cold; they will hallucinate with a young woman stranded at the top of Annapurna as she experiences a cerebral edema; and while a kayaker tumbles helplessly underwater for two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, readers, too, will gasp for their last breath.'
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