Helpful Score: 6
Loved it! It keeps your heart racing fast and you can't put it down, and it's also educational, I learned a good deal about dangerous viruses and how relatively simple it really is for them to spread all around the world. Great read, highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 4
This is a creepy book that proves that truth can really be more scarier than fiction. It will, I guarantee, make you think about that guy sneezing in front of you. His other book The Cobra Event is as equally good.
Helpful Score: 4
scary as h-e-double-toothpicks...
Helpful Score: 4
This terrifying true story reads like a thriller novel. Not for the faint-hearted! This book will change the way you view viruses and epidemics! THE HOT ZONE proves that truth is scarier than fiction.
Helpful Score: 4
Wonderful book! I couldn't wait to get home at night and see what was next! Fast read - and creepier because it really happened. Shows that germ warfare agents CAN get out into the population......and have!
Helpful Score: 3
A terrifying look at the end results of a pandemic, natual or terrorist induced. The author traces the hunt for the source of a highly infectious deadly virus from Africa to the suburbs of Washinton, DC. There is no known cure. This would be scary enough if it were fiction, but it is based on truth.
Helpful Score: 2
You won't be able to put this down & will be haunted by it
Helpful Score: 2
I read this back in High School. A kid on my bus said, "this is a good book, read it." I did so at the time not realizing it was true until I started telling my mom about it. I couldn't put it down. It is a must read.
Helpful Score: 2
Great book. Scared me to death the first time I read it years ago. Loaned my copy out and never got it back. Reordered it and read it in one sitting. As a nurse working in a hospital I see how easy it is for something like this to happen. Really makes you think about how scary the world can be today with the ability to travel anywhere in the world in a few hours.
Helpful Score: 2
An intense and captivating read!
Helpful Score: 2
Scary. I wish it was just fiction, than I could sleep better at night.
Helpful Score: 2
For me, this was one of those so-gripping-I-couldn't-put-it-down books. It is horrifying and yet informative.
Helpful Score: 1
From the back cover: A highly infectious deadly virus from the central Afiican rain forest suddenly apperas in the suburbs of Wahingotn, D.d.. Ther is no cure. In a few days, 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilizied to stop the outbreak before this exotic virus and spread! Amazing TRUE account of a lethal outbreak on our shores. Scariest story I have read all year! And i read A LOT of horror!!
Helpful Score: 1
With all of the recent news stories about bioterrorism, I was eager to read another "plague" book, especially a nonfiction one, but being a nurse I expected this to be written at a least a college level. I was disappointed by the "high-school" writing style. This is an easy read, definitely catered towards a nonmedical lay audience.
Helpful Score: 1
This was hard to beleive. I went to the internet to see if it was true! Riveting. Hard to put down.
Helpful Score: 1
Not for the faint of heart, the hypochondriac or the chronic worrier.
This book is a true story of how close we may have come to a global pandemic and how close we may be to an airborne strain of Ebola that could wipe out 90% of the world's population.
It's a gripping book that reads like a novel. When you start reading it like a novel, the build ups result in let downs. When you remember it is nonfiction, it's quite scary.
3 stars out of 5
This book is a true story of how close we may have come to a global pandemic and how close we may be to an airborne strain of Ebola that could wipe out 90% of the world's population.
It's a gripping book that reads like a novel. When you start reading it like a novel, the build ups result in let downs. When you remember it is nonfiction, it's quite scary.
3 stars out of 5
Helpful Score: 1
Great book and has it says it IS truly terrifying especially in this day and age. I had trouble putting it down and trouble sleeping after I did. Based on true events it will really make you think about how easily this could happen. Highly recommend this book!
Helpful Score: 1
I love this book. It's really intense and thrilling.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a great read, but it will make you wonder how many times this has happened in the U.S. and in other countries and we "little" people never hear about it.
Helpful Score: 1
A very exciting book about the attempts to stop the outbreak of Ebola in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The description of what Ebola does to the human body is not for the squeamish.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent book.
Helpful Score: 1
The true story of how a deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in a Washington, D.C., animal test lab. In a matter of days, 90% of the primates exposed to the virus are dead, and secret government forces are mobilized to stop the spread of this exotic "hot" virus.
Helpful Score: 1
Great book for any Micheal Crichton readers out there! The author makes the biology of the viruses very easy to understand for the laymen, so don't be put off by that. And although it's nonfiction, it definitely reads like a fictional thriller, like andromeda strain.
Helpful Score: 1
I read most of the 35 reviews available, and I changed my mind about reading it! It sounds like a thriller that's just a little too real for me to read before sleep- which is when I read for entertainment.
Helpful Score: 1
The story of the first Ebola outbreak in the US, back in 1989.
True and well researched, full of interesting information, the only drawback to this book is the writing, which is simplistic and somewhat repetitive.
Read it to learn how we dodged a big bullet during this event, then ponder how likely we are to see something similar happen again, maybe with bird flu.
True and well researched, full of interesting information, the only drawback to this book is the writing, which is simplistic and somewhat repetitive.
Read it to learn how we dodged a big bullet during this event, then ponder how likely we are to see something similar happen again, maybe with bird flu.
Helpful Score: 1
It is facinating, but on the grusome side.
Helpful Score: 1
Fascinating. . . riveting. . . a documentary that brings its main cbaracters into vivid, 3-D life.
Excellent story which keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.
A great medical thriller.
Fascinating read, also very scary. We were very lucky this wasn't infectious to humans because there was just all kinds of exposure to the general public. One can only hope that a real infectious version of teh virus doesn't get into the human population. The science was explained in very understandable terms so it isn't too deep for anyone to read.
I first read this book in 8th grade after one of my teachers read us a section out of the beginning. I have read it many times since and i would recommend it to anyone. This book however is not for the type of people who are faint at heart. The Hot Zone...also makes you think about how easily a virus could spread and what could happen.
The first chapter of this book was one of the most horrifying things I've ever read in my whole life....and then it gets worse. Scary in deep and unsettling ways, because it's not fiction.
The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne and extremely contagious.
The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne and extremely contagious.
The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly and gruesomely that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne, it is extremely contagious, and it is about to burn through the suburbs of a major American city. Is there any way to stop it?
In the winter of 1989, at an Army research facility outside Washington D.C., this doomsday scenario seemed like a real possibility. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits had been organized to stop the outbreak of an exotic "hot" virus. The grim operation went on in secret for eighteen days, under dangerous conditions for which there was no precedent.
"The Hot Zone" tells this dramatic story in depth for the first time, giving an absolutely hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. From a remote jungle cave festering with deadly organisms, to an airplane over Africa that is carrying a sick passenger who dissolves into a human virus bomb, to the confines of a Biosafety Level 4 military lab where scientists risk their lives studying lethal substances that could kill them quickly and horribly. "The Hot Zone" describes situations that a few years ago would have been taken for science fiction. As tropical wildernesses of the world are destroyed, previously unknown viruses that have lived undetected in the rain forest for eons are entering human populations. The appearance of AIDS is part of the pattern, and the implications for the future of the human species are terrifying.
In the winter of 1989, at an Army research facility outside Washington D.C., this doomsday scenario seemed like a real possibility. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits had been organized to stop the outbreak of an exotic "hot" virus. The grim operation went on in secret for eighteen days, under dangerous conditions for which there was no precedent.
"The Hot Zone" tells this dramatic story in depth for the first time, giving an absolutely hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. From a remote jungle cave festering with deadly organisms, to an airplane over Africa that is carrying a sick passenger who dissolves into a human virus bomb, to the confines of a Biosafety Level 4 military lab where scientists risk their lives studying lethal substances that could kill them quickly and horribly. "The Hot Zone" describes situations that a few years ago would have been taken for science fiction. As tropical wildernesses of the world are destroyed, previously unknown viruses that have lived undetected in the rain forest for eons are entering human populations. The appearance of AIDS is part of the pattern, and the implications for the future of the human species are terrifying.
Couldn't put it down! I usually don't like these kinds of books!!
Loved this book---so educational and exciting.
Very intense page turner. Found this book very hard to put down
Still relevant today. How many lab monkeys are actually being tested in confined and restricted laboratories?
Intriguing, but also horrifying. The book dragged a bit at the beginning and the end. The ending was tidy, but a non-sequitur. It was almost as if after writing about what could have been a disaster, the author wanted to change directions.
Overall a very linear story telling style, not many plot twists (but how can it have them, its based on a true story).
Its an enjoyable read, but I think it should be aimed at those folks that are mature enough to handle something that is potentially horrific. (I think this would exclude many of the talking heads on TV.) Several characters in the background narrative die, and the author describe the deaths graphic detail.
I enjoyed it.
Overall a very linear story telling style, not many plot twists (but how can it have them, its based on a true story).
Its an enjoyable read, but I think it should be aimed at those folks that are mature enough to handle something that is potentially horrific. (I think this would exclude many of the talking heads on TV.) Several characters in the background narrative die, and the author describe the deaths graphic detail.
I enjoyed it.
AWESOME BOOK!!!! Crazy scary.
I really enjoyed this book! As soon as I opened it to the first page, I couldn't put it down. It was thrilling. I recommend this book to everyone.
Not for the squeamish or paranoid! The true story of the ebola virus is as fascinating as it is frightening.
Timeless terror. I was scared in the 1990's the first time I read it. Then came Anthrax in 2001. Then Mad Cow Disease. Now Swine Flu.
This book demontrates that very powerful, deadly viruses exist that we don't even know about yet and could be transmitted at any time. A must read.
This book demontrates that very powerful, deadly viruses exist that we don't even know about yet and could be transmitted at any time. A must read.
A great read to be informed of just what really happens when there is a possible out break of a deadly virus. This true story helps us to realize that it could and did happen here in this country. I also recommend "Demon in the Freezer".
Factual account of a virus outbreak that
was kept secret in a Washington Lab
was kept secret in a Washington Lab
This is one of my favorite books of all time. An infectious story about an infectious disease.
This book will scare you!
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 soliders and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic 'hot' visus. 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.
This is the scariest book I ever read.
this man writes the best medical thrillers....too bad they have all been true stories. after this one read The Demon in The Freezer" which was written after 9/11 is even more scary...there were times during that book i held my breath!!!
An exotic virus takes over Washington D. C. Horifyfiction.
This is a true story about a deadly virus from Afica that appears in Washington, D.C. Well written, informative. quick read.
Excellent NON-FICTION...terrifying true story which will sound like Robin Cook or Michael Crichton! Truly a pager-turner.
I really enjoyed the book. It's kind of scary.
Amazing to read, especially in today's times. I usually don't read nonfiction, but this book reads just like a terrifying fiction book. You won't be able to put it town.
I liked this book very much.
This was the scariest thing I ever read.
highly reccomned reading this one.
true story of modern medical science that reads like science fiction.
This is a very suspenseful book and it is all true. There is a lot of gorry descriptions in this book. I learned a lot about how viruses start, where they come from, and what they do. Now that I have read this, I am extremely interested in the bird flu scare and want to go back and research the great influenza.
Nonfiction that reads like a thriller. A fascinating book.
This book is based on true events concerning viral infections such as Ebola. I read this book in high school based on a recommendation from my science teacher, and it turns out to have been one of the best books I have read. I would recommend this for all readers who want something to think about while they read.
This fantastic nonfiction book about epidemiology and an African virus will take your mind off the avian flu. Even my book-hating son enjoyed it. Reading level is at least middle school. probably more like high school level or above, but my son was in middle school at the time he read it.
Hard to put down - very scary that this is non-fiction account of events. Very well written, disturbingly detailed. Won't forget this one for a long time.
Interesting, scientific read
Great read...very eerie when you realize the outbreak was based on an actual event. This was the basis for the movie "Outbreak"
This is medical thriller, But true. Ebola grows proliferately right outside Washington DC. It is believed to have come from a ruined African rainforest left to grow lethal Viruses. Dozens of monkeys die. What will be done? What can we do? This story true will scare the nerves out of you.
Level Four Hot Zone, was a much better book.
This book was crazy terrifying...
"A bone-chilling account of a close encounter with a lethal (African)virus ... a totally convincing page-turner, proving that truth is scarier than fiction" [Kirkus Reviews][A]
"One of the most horrifying things I've ever read. What a remarkable piece of work."-Stephen King
Classic, edge-of-your-seat medical thriller! A highly infectious, deadly virus begins rampaging through a Washington, DC suburb and within a few days 90% of the victims are dead. A secret team of SWAT soldiers and scientists work together to stop the outbreak!
A truly horrifying story - more so because it is a true story.
A great and terrifying read
This is one of my all-time favorite books. A great novel
Reminiscent of Robin Cook books. A good read.
GREAT book, scary & gripping
"The unforgettable reunion of four extraordinary women : Diane - independant and ambitions,Elaine - radical feminist, Joanne - single, successful and georgeous, Sukie -the catalyst"
"HOT STUFF! Regardless of your age or sex, this book will hit you like a medicine ball to the gut" - Rita Mae Brown, author of Rubyfruit Jungle, Southern Discomfort adn High Hearts.
"Hot Flashes is Hot, Flashy and Wonderful!...Plently of Flashes here-of wit,humor,insight,anger...but Hot Flashes has much moreto offer: it builds to a conslusion that is powerful, moving,and hopeful." -Cincinnati Post
"HOT STUFF! Regardless of your age or sex, this book will hit you like a medicine ball to the gut" - Rita Mae Brown, author of Rubyfruit Jungle, Southern Discomfort adn High Hearts.
"Hot Flashes is Hot, Flashy and Wonderful!...Plently of Flashes here-of wit,humor,insight,anger...but Hot Flashes has much moreto offer: it builds to a conslusion that is powerful, moving,and hopeful." -Cincinnati Post
100% freaked me out, I wanted to wear gloves just to read it. It was used for a collage report so it has some circled words, otherwise the book is great. Loved it.
