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When the Chernobyl disaster took place on April 26, 1986, I had not long turned one years of age. Up until Xmas Eve of this year, I had no idea of the implications that particular disaster had had on my parents (especially my Mum's) mental health. Despite us living in the UK at the time, I learned that she was worried each time it rained, due to the radioactivity that spread into Europe, so she kept me indoors when it did rain.

I have obviously heard about Chernobyl before, on television reports, and also in books, but I hadn't read anything in depth on it, until now. What inspired me to do so, was the harrowing but powerful TV adaptation of Chernobyl that has been recently shown. I binge watched it. It was incredibly difficult to watch from my front room, but I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been for all involved on that morning.

In this particular book, Plokhy tells us why this disaster happened, and how, and then he explains what occurred as a result of this disaster. Each event that essentially led to the Chernobyl disaster is written in detail. The actual disaster occurred due to failures from the management at the plant, and unrealistic time targets that they were under pressure to reach.

After the explosion, we are told that people who were initially first on the scene, such as firefighters, were going straight in without any protective equipment, believing that it was merely a fire. These men, were some of the first to lose their lives to acute radiation poisoning.

When reading this book, the word "denial" is everywhere. One cannot quite believe how this was handled by Government officials, who insisted on playing the entire situation down, and at the same time, failing to inform international Governments of the imminent danger to all the surrounding countries.

For me, Plokhy had some information on the political side of things in here, and some biographical information, that really didn't need to be in the book. It was a little dense at times, and although others may appreciate this, I didn't. As I came near the end of the book, it just seemed to be a lot of figures on each page, which is fine if you want that, but figures don't move me. I wanted personal accounts from people involved in this horrendous disaster, not a list of statistics.

Overall, this was an interesting, powerful and an essential read of one of the most significant disasters in history, and I'd recommend it to everybody.