The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

The Hot Zone is a terrifying and thrilling novel that tells the true stories behind some of the most lethal disease outbreaks in recent memory. The trail starts in Africa with a man named Charles Monet who starts displaying some disturbing symptoms after a camping trip on Mount Elgon. After several days of suffering, his co-workers convince him to go to Nairobi Hospital. While sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, Monet “crashes” and suffers full body haemorrhaging. Monet is dead by the next morning but not before infecting the ER doctor that treated to him. The story continues in Washington D.C. with the out break of Ebola from the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). It catalogues the United States government’s efforts to control the outbreak with graphic realism and proves once and for all that truth is scarier than fiction.

I would recommend this book to anyone because it was highly descriptive and gave detailed back stories to the events leading up to an outbreak. It kept me as a reader enthralled with graphic descriptions from start to finish. Also knowing that the stories were 100% true made it that much more interesting.

While reading The Hot Zone it would appear at times that Richard Preston might be slightly biased. However I feel that this is simply not the case. Preston frequently mentions meeting the people in his book personally while researching. He speaks vividly about their appearance and how they described their lives after the outbreak, as well as the tragic demise of their friend or loved one. Because of this irrefutable evidence I feel as though Preston is actually quite unbiased in his telling of The Hot Zone and I would highly recommend this book to anyone except the faint of heart.