The Hot Zone Book Review-Davis

The Hot Zone

Book Review

Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone tells one of the most horrifying stories known to the world as of 1976.  Richard Preston’s depiction of the real world events set The Hot Zone aside from any other non-fiction work.  Through his own second-hand accounts, Preston creates a seemingly fake horror that grows as the story carries along in his four part work.  Preston opens the journey with the life and travels of a man by the pseudonym of Charles Monet, a Frenchman residing in Uganda who is presented to be the original contractee of Ebolavirus, the hot virus that is known now as one of the most deadly and infectious still to this day.  Post contraction of the virus in what is thought to be from the deep rainforest of central Africa, Charles Monet is followed by plane and taxi only to reveal that this unknown illness kills him within days, as well as other doctors and nurses that study and tend to his gross illness.

The opening events of the virus’s disgustingly depicted engulfment of the Frenchman plant the groundwork for the evolving suspense and mystery of the virus unknown to the world at the time.  Richard Preston builds off of the virus’s epicenter in the microcosm of central Africa to reveal the world’s newest medical research phenomenon.  As this account is set in the era of the catastrophic AIDS breakout, it portrays the reality of the little medical knowledge the world had about viruses that are born within the rain forests of  central Africa.  This background sets so much suspense and curiosity in the reader’s mind, it almost pushes the reader to learn more.  Preston uses his accounts with the characters behind the story to map the scientific and medical advancements that bring this book to life.  As the virus multiplies, so does the setting.  Preston takes the reader across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, where samples of the virus infected blood of Doctor Shem Musoke (Monet’s doctor) were sent for testing.

Preston leads the remainder of the story through more micro outbreaks of the virus in Africa alongside the fatally dangerous research and testing of the hot virus on monkeys in the United States, which leads a team of scientists to travel to the virus infested rain forest of Uganda to find where the virus comes from.  Through each and every page, Preston continues to hold the reader by sheer horror and suspense, not knowing what will happen at the turn of the next page.  Although The Hot Zone is a non-fictional read, the way in which Preston exemplifies the real life terrifying events makes it seem far more made up than anything that could actually occur in real life.

Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone is a must read thriller that will not only tell the shockingly gruesome story of the filovirus Ebola Zaire, but it will leave your mind questioning the significance of human existence in a world exposed to the very unknown dangers of mother nature.