Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

18 reviews

unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

5.0

I have never even considered what happens in a nuclear reactor nor had I thought much about Soviet politics or the Chernobyl disaster and | feel like | have taken a well-taught graduate level course on all of those things now. This book was riveting. I listened to quite a bit of it - the audio had a wonderful narrator (Jacques Roy)

If you like apocalyptic science fiction, you will like this.
Higginbotham puts so much humanity in the story of atomic disaster and political maneuvering giving this beefy nonfiction intense plot points to pull you through the story.

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jowestendorf's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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matthewosborne's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

The portions of the book covering the initial days of the disaster were the best part of the book.

Following that period the book slowed down for me quite a bit.

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colter_hoen's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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krystalframe's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.5

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jaibird's review against another edition

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dark informative tense slow-paced

5.0

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

What a riveting, horrifying book. The whole time I was reading the first half, I was tense thinking “Don’t do that!” or “Get out of there!” or “You stupid, stupid idiot!” I knew what was going to happen even if the people at Chernobyl didn’t.

I remember when the reactor at Chernobyl exploded but I never knew details. Physics and engineering are another, alien world to me so I didn’t even try to learn about it. (The same with Fukushima - I was shocked and saddened but never read further.)

This book explains things in layman’s terms, still beyond my English major’s comprehension, but I was at least able to get the gist of it. And I found it fascinating. The author takes a complex, often tedious, topic and brings it to life with details of what exactly happened and to whom. Much of what is in the book was hidden in Soviet archives and only came to light after the breakup of the USSR.

This is an amazing look at the worst nuclear disaster ever, where millions of people across Europe had their lives and livelihoods upended at best. Officially only 31 people died as a result of the accident but we know the toll is far higher with the early onset of cancers.

I’ve been telling friends about this book for days. I hope they read it!

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