Chernobyl: The Fall of Atomgrad - Matyáš Namai - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Matyáš Namai

GENRE: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction.

PUBLICATION DATE: May 7, 2024

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A hardhitting graphic novel about the world’s largest nuclear disaster. As horrifying as you can imagine, though the artwork luckily tones down the gruesomeness thanks to the chosen colour palette. A bit rushed in execution, but still, a good starting point to know about the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986.

When blind nationalism supersedes common sense, the result is disaster. Chernobyl is the biggest proof of this.

This graphic novel retells the events of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in April 1986 and the aftermath of the same. It covers the impact on the first respondents, the ordinary citizens and the responsible parties, while also highlighting the series of illogical decisions that led to the disaster.

The book begins with a spine-chilling reference table indicating radiation levels and their effects. This indicates how radiation is actually everywhere, what constitutes a dangerous or a fatal dose of radiation, and what dose was received by the people in Chernobyl on that fateful day. The numbers are enough to induce nightmares.

But the main nightmare is when you see not just the disaster unfolding on the page, but the events that led to the disaster. What can one say when people who know nothing about nuclear energy are put in charge of building and running such huge nuclear power plants? Or when deadlines are made so crucial that quality is compromised for speed? Or when the general population is considered expendable for the larger good of proving your country’s worth to the world?

I have watched the brilliant miniseries “Chernobyl” and though I had vaguely known about the disaster even before, it is the TV series that first showed me the actual terrifying nature of the event. If you have already watched the series, the book doesn’t offer much new information. It would anyway be tough for a graphic novel to compare with an audio-visual medium, but to a certain extent, this book succeeds in its purpose of reminding us of that haunting calamity.

What I especially liked was how the novel depicted the “socialistic” approach towards getting work done. The author doesn’t hold back in his criticism of the Russian oligarchy, being quite blunt about how their uppity attitude, their blind adherence to party dictates, and their overconfidence in their skills created a goof of such a monumental scale.

Another thing I loved was its simplified analogy of how exactly the reactor exploded. This was a clever way of explaining the cause to general readers without going too jargonistic.

At the same time, the book feels somewhat rushed. It is only 112 pages long, including the initial publisher material: too short for such a topic. Some pages have graphic panels without any text. As such, the content, while accurate and comprehensive, also feels superficial, with only a brief glimpse of the trauma that awaited the Chernobyl victims. It flits across various issues without going deeper into most. The main focus of the book is to point fingers at those who created the disaster, directly or indirectly, but I would have liked an equal focus to be on the victims as well. The human, animal, and environmental cost of the disaster is still being paid today, but this isn’t covered in that much detail.

The illustrations work in favour of the storyline. The blue and yellow colour palette, probably to doff a hat to the Ukrainian flag colours (with Chernobyl being in present-day Ukraine), also serves to lessen the visual brutality of the more severe effects of the explosion and subsequent radiation. The scenes are scary enough to watch even with this muted colour tone. A few of the words in the background illustration are in Russian; I wish the English edition had the translated version of these as well.

In short, this is a heart-breaking yet impactful graphic novel depicting a catastrophe that took place almost four decades ago but that continues to affect lives today. To those who have already read nonfiction novels on Chernobyl such as Adam Higginbotham’s ‘Midnight in Chernobyl’ or Svetlana Alexievich’s ‘Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster’ (both of which are on my TBR list), or have watched the HBO miniseries, this graphic version might not add much. But it would be a great option to readers seeking broad information on the catastrophe without wanting to invest too much time.

Needless to add, this graphic novel is only for adults. Too many disturbing events in here for younger hearts.

My thanks to Palazzo Editions and NetGalley for the DRC of “Chernobyl: The Fall of Atomgrad”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.