Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

12 reviews

matthewosborne's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma

colter_hoen's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Medical trauma, Medical content, Cancer, Addiction, Gore, Vomit, Suicide, and Alcoholism

nikkimouse_16's review

dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Grief, Death, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

clairedrum's review

informative reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, and Vomit

cmbohn's review against another edition

challenging informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

jhbandcats's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Animal death, Cancer, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

mscalls's review

challenging dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Terminal illness

zalouis's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cancer, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Infertility, and War

zakcebulski's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious relaxing sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Holy fucking hell, man.
This is my most confident 5 star in a long, long time.
I have always had a passing interest or fascination in the Chernobyl disaster, because of how it feels like something that would only happen in a movie, or television show- nothing that could possibly happen in real life.
After reading this book, I can confidently say that this is one of the scariest books that I have ever read on so many fronts.
This is an absolutely amazing read, and Adam Higgenbotham does an exquisite job of telling this story from the foundation of how Pripyat and the reactors. I cannot commend the author's ability to write nuclear fission in such a way that someone (me) who has no fucking clue as to anything to do with nuclear power can understand it. 
This book absolutely reads like any of the best action movies with an air of thriller for extra spice. 
I referenced this book being scary, and, I truly believe it is, on so many levels. The idea of radiation poisoning and the abject helplessness that people are against its effects is mortifying. Once someone has acute radiation sickness (ARS) they have a whole slew of symptoms wherein they are largely unable to combat it, is such a scary thought. The fact that it is an invisible enemy, where the only thing that people can do is keep an eye out for their radiation levels- it is incredible to me. 

I think another wholly terrifying part of this book is it exposes the government bullshit and corruption that is so prevalent in the world. The fact that so many higher ups were so ready to minimize the impact and danger of this situation is stomach churning, especially when you realize that so many people needlessly perished and suffered more, because of gross negligence. 
I think that this is one of the saddest books which I have read in a long time because of all of the instances wherein people are doing their best to try and stop a situation, and to have their actions result in their own demise, while also having them be in vain is so heart wrenching. How many government leaders minimized the detrimental impact of this event solely to save face for the USSR- it is sickening and resulted in the needless suffering of hundreds of thousands. 
Throughout this book, I was constantly shocked at the ages of all of the directors and leaders- so many of them were mid 20s... as a 27 year old reading this book, I could no fathom being in the position wherein you know that you have absorbed too much radiation to be able to survive, and your death is sealed. I cannot understand or empathize with this, but, it shows that humans are strong animals.
Even after all of the government negligence and horror in this book and this event, I think the thing that shines through most brightly is the heroic efforts of normal people. People who knew that they were in an immense amount of danger, and still risked their lives for the betterment and prevention of the worsening of the lives of others. The fact that this event could have been so much worse than it was is already incredible to me, and it is through the efforts of people who wanted the best for their fellow people that they sacrificed their health and their lives. I think that it is these people who should be remembered, those who suffered needlessly and treated as sacrificial pawns in a game to save face for a crumbling empire.

What a read. Holy hell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Medical trauma, and Suicide

readerette's review

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Sometimes there are pages devoted to a few seconds of time, but it works very well for the story of Chernobyl because significant events happened in the blink of an eye, and thousands of lives were changed (and in many cases and many ways, over) because of the events. Not an easy read, but so helpful in contextualizing what happened and how we can each watch for similar warning signs in the (hopefully less potentially catastrophic) choices we come across in our own lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Grief and Animal death

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Cursing