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

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

32 reviews

zalouis's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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zakcebulski's review against another edition

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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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sophie42's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

4.0

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readerette's review against another edition

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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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