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ainsleyc's review
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
In my few years of fascination of Chernobyl, there usually seems to be two methods of reporting on the disaster: one of specific scientific fact, and the other a mishmash of nuclear radiation horror story.
This book is neither, and is all the better for it. Higgenbotham manages a feat of describing the human cost of Chernobyl, and honoring the hundreds of thousands of people who titrelessly worked to mitigate the disaster, while also detailing the Soviet culture and yes, some science history, to effectively place the reader in Reactor Four and Pripyat before, during, and most importantly, after the disaster.
Its accessible, a feat of reporting, and reaffirms to me that the Chernobyl liquidators deserve more recognition.
This book is neither, and is all the better for it. Higgenbotham manages a feat of describing the human cost of Chernobyl, and honoring the hundreds of thousands of people who titrelessly worked to mitigate the disaster, while also detailing the Soviet culture and yes, some science history, to effectively place the reader in Reactor Four and Pripyat before, during, and most importantly, after the disaster.
Its accessible, a feat of reporting, and reaffirms to me that the Chernobyl liquidators deserve more recognition.
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!