Title: The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

Author: Richard Preston

Publisher: Anchor 1994

Genre: Nonfiction - Science

Pages: 323

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Monthly Keyword - August; Nonfiction - Pre2000

A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.

How have I never actually read this one? I love reading about infectious diseases. I am fascinated by ebola. But this book has sat on my TBR list for decades… I finally got around to it and loved every page of it. The story of Ebola’s almost outbreak in Virginia is terrifying even more because it’s all true. The book is written in a fictional narrative style throughout most of the chapters, but we really get a sense of time and place with all parties involved. I really enjoyed the chapters that set up our knowledge of ebola at the end of the 1980s. At times, I think the writing got a little too detailed with things like what the participants wore or ate, but overall I was on the hook the entire time.

Next up on the TBR pile: