A review by erineatsveggieburgers
Chernobyl 01: 23:40: The incredible true story of the world's worst nuclear disaster by Andrew Leatherbarrow

3.0

I really enjoyed 90% of this book. The chapters about what happened during the disaster at Chernobyl were excellent. These chapters were interspersed with the author's own visit to the site of the reactor and to the city of Pripyat. I enjoyed some of his descriptions of his visit to the site, but found myself jarred out of the narrative by his personal experiences. For instance, he repeatedly mentions Minecraft, which makes me think about my elementary school aged kids and dates the book. He also refers to his minor hassles on the trip in a way that starkly contrast with the death and suffering of the disaster in 1986. It's hard to feel any sympathy for how sleep deprived he felt during his trip, or his problems with translation leading to eating ice cream and cake for dinner when contrasted with people dying from radiation poisoning or being vaporized. I'm only about ten years older than the author, but these mentions made me feel like he was immature in a way that distracted me from the flow of the book. That being said, he is an excellent writer. He clearly has some interesting experiences with exploring abandoned structures. I hope he writes more books-I will certainly read them!