Very, Very, Very Dreadful

Narrator Jim Frangione's emotional tone befits this nonfiction work about the influenza pandemic that raged from 1918-1920. Frangione re-creates dramatic pictures of a flu that began in the crowded camps of WWI, swept through the congested trenches, and spread across the world, claiming 50-100 million lives. In addition, Frangione delivers contextual material in an authoritative yet approachable manner. His tone switches easily from impassioned views to information about past plagues, medical advances throughout history, and the science of the virulent mutating virus. The author's extensive research is apparent. He pulls from first-person accounts, medical records, and newspaper articles and with aplomb weaves them into a narrative that works well as an audiobook. S.W. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine