Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

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

12 reviews

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

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

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

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

augustallyearround's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Medical content

samhackett's review

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Child death, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide

byrdies's review

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

lola_milk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Terminal illness