Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexiévich, Anna Gunin, Arch Tait

9 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

coffeefrog22's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

Came into this expecting a factual history of the Chernobyl disaster, and ended up having my heart ripped out instead. One of the few books to genuinely change my life in some way - I can't read history books that don't have a real sense of empathy anymore, not after reading this one.

Thank goodness this book exists. Svetlana Alexeivich has a Nobel prize for a reason. She's one of the best journalists in history. Read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Medical trauma, and Grief

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

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

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

byrdies's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book was emotionally devastating to read. It took the tragedy of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which is most often discussed as an example of the consequences of Soviet self aggrandizement, and placed it at the feet of the survivors. It placed it within the homes and minds of regular, normal, every day people. It forced the reader to confront the fact that yes, the world goes on, but that doesn't mean it wasn't irrevocably changed. At least for the people who lived through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Medical content, Suicide, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, Infertility, Pregnancy, Gore, and Miscarriage

cynaramaira's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Medical trauma, War, Miscarriage, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Medical content

msrichardsreads89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

bettinablocksberg's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Infertility, Grief, Chronic illness, Child death, Cancer, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, and Alcoholism

Minor: Vomit