So you know that Chernobyl was a massive explosion at a nuclear power plant in Russia or something right? And then people got radiation sickness and they started mutating and turned into zombies right? Well sort of. Midnight in Chernobyl takes you on a journey you didn’t know you needed to go on into some of the darkest depths of global destruction. From the faulty construction of the most widely used nuclear reactor to the science of radiation all the way to the impact on the global ecosystem, this book goes far beyond mutated frogs and zombified townspeople. But don’t worry the hospital reports read like a horror novel. I came into this book not really knowing all of the implications that surrounded this historic event (for one the plant was in the Ukraine). I really only knew there was a major explosion and that Call of Duty made a Zombies map based on the events of this mess. But wow. This book is investigative journalism at its finest. Higginbotham has spent pretty much his entire life researching this highly covered up event within one of the most secretive governments in the world. He paints the backdrop of the Cold War and the implications of the nuclear power struggle between the Soviets and the US that really makes these events hit home. It’s a powerful display of global politics, heartbreaking personal accounts and general chaos in a nonfiction book that reads like a horror novel. This is a must read nonfiction book.