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purplepierogi's review
3.0
Definitely not the emotional wringer that the hbo series is (except maybe chp 13) but answers any burning technical questions and provides context on Soviet work/bureaucracy culture, the peaceful atom, divided clean up efforts etc. some narrative nonfiction feels really fluid and engaging and you wonder how they know all those details; this clearly tried that but fell short to just weirdly overbearing in its descriptions, like “the toothy queen” to describe queen Elizabeth and other stuff, cheap shots at the USSR that maybe are justified but just the phrasing feels extreme. On the other hand — wow! 10 years of research! Hundreds of interviews! Declassified files! I was going to say this book walked so hbo series Chernobyl could run, but upon inspection, the two were released completely independently of one another lmao. just watch the show and read this if you’re still interested after!
qjbrown96's review
5.0
If you love history then you’ll love this. If you’re interested in history but wish it was written as a thriller then you will LOVE this book. I literally know the outcome of Chernobyl and I was still getting anxiety about how everything was going to play out. Learned lots of things I didn’t know about and it shows just how corrupt Russia is