Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexiévich

18 reviews

vncavalcanti's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Death, Animal death, Child death, Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Cancer

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Chronic illness

boydgirl's review against another edition

Might be a temporary DNF. Just a bit too emotionally taxing for me ATM.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage and Cancer

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

“It was more like a conspiracy of ignorance and obedience.” Soviet citizens trusted in the power of the government, and refused to even consider that things might be different from what they were being told. 

This book was so hard to read. I kept having to stop and take a break. And then I procrastinated so I didn’t have to read any more of it. I’m relieved I finally finished. Of course, the struggles I faced reading it are farcical in comparison to what the people of the Chernobyl disaster experienced. 

I found the book hard to read because it was so painful, people describing the worst time of their lives. These memories were interspersed with the occasional gung-ho Soviet who, ten years later, in the face of all the evidence, refused to admit anything had gone wrong, that it was all Western propaganda designed to tear down the achievements of the great Soviet Union. And this five years after the Soviet Union collapsed. 

It was also hard to read because the chapters were all transcripts of people talking - and people talk in a very different way than they write, jumping from topic to topic, forgetting where they are in the middle of a sentence, saying something and then immediately backtracking. That said, this book is an essential chronicle of how people experienced the disaster that was Chernobyl. Anyone interested should find this compelling, if difficult and disturbing, reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Cancer, Infertility, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Abortion, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Animal death, Classism, Death, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Gore, and Chronic illness

sinistralcalluna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Excellent but emotionally difficult. I couldn’t put it down and I’m so glad I read it. 

However, be aware that it contains first person accounts of death from radiation poisoning, and the effects of radiation on infants and children.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Miscarriage, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Animal death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Medical content, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

puglover's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cancer, Animal death, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Medical trauma and Deportation

Minor: War, Suicide, Torture, and Pregnancy

sophie42's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal death, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

stacy_es's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.75

That book was really challenging for me. It portrays mainly the points of view of Belorussians and the impact of the catastrophe on that country, the Ukraine itself, the place of the scene, was rarely mentioned. Some of the interviewees believed that Ukrainians asked for and got all the support while Belorussians did not …
The form of the interviews and monologues was really nice, it appealed to emotions rather than facts. Some of the speeches were so painful and scary, especially the paragraph with the kids interviews. 
But there were so many inexplicable things that were infuriating me. Ignorance, silent obedience, hiding of the facts altogether with saying about heroic deeds of liquidators. But so many of these actions were pointless while the deaths of these people were simply dreadful, they could only dream of just death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Child death

leahfoko's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This book was fascinating to read, but also very sad. It was really interesting to hear the stories of people in and around Chernobyl and what they and their families experienced. It was often heartbreaking and really challenging to read certain parts so it is important to be aware of how some of the gruesome parts and the grief and loss that many people felt could be triggering for some. I think the author did a good job of including people’s stories as they wanted them to be told and being respectful of their stories and experiences. If you’re interested in what happened at Chernobyl, and if you enjoyed the show Chernobyl on HBO then I recommend this book. (I read it in large part because Craig Mazin said it informed a lot of his choices on the show and recommended people read it.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Child death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cursing, Violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Murder, War, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

mmorenagomes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

Couldn’t handle the whole situation, couldn’t read a single story without crying. Even tough I have read Svetlana’s books about war, this one hits different, it changed my perspective of the accident, it made Tchernobyl real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Body horror, Child death, Infertility, and Violence

nataalia_sanchez's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Child death