Customer Reviews

5 reviews

• Melissa Espenschied

  Lithium by Asina C is not the typical book style that comes to mind when I think about a fiction book based in Chernobyl. Normally I would expect such a book to be full of zombies or mutants who go around terrorizing a group of tourist that get lost but that is not the case with Lithium. Instead, this book mixes truth with science and a little bit of fantasy and gives readers a different type of story altogether. This book also talks about the Red Forest in Chernobyl and it sparked an interest in me to look up some pictures of the forest. I also did not notice too much that widely away from the actual facts about Chernobyl, though I would by no means consider myself to be well informed on the subject.
  
  Zurin has lived with her mother for all of her twelve years in a small shack in Pripyat. Her mother has always kept Zurin inside her home for fear of radiation sickness and being seen. This is in part because the area in which they live is believed to be uninhabitable because of all the radiation still in everything following the explosion. Zurin has always been obedient to her mother’s rules until one day when her mother goes to get supplies and Zurin decides to step outside for the first time but may have been seen by someone.
  
  Then one day, shortly after her birthday Zurin wakes up to find her mother gone and blood on the floor. Zurin then ventures out into the Red Forest in search of her mother but gets extremely lost and succumbs to radiation sickness. Luckily she is found by a young couple who work for a travel company and snuck into a restricted area of Chernobyl to take pictures for their website. The couple takes Zurin to the hospital and adopts her once she gets better. As fate would have it months later Zurin returns to Pripyat in search of her mother yet again and finds herself in an abandoned hospital. It is in this hospital that she learns the truth about her mother and her life up to this point. Her only hope is to team up with a doctor she is not completely trusting of, the young couple, and a man she has never met before.
  
  What I liked best was the idea of people still being able to live in a highly irradiated area such as Pripyat with few side effects was interesting. The book also offered some mystery as to who Zurin and her mother are and why they chose to continue to live in an isolated area such a Pripyat. What I liked least was a little more complicated. I understand the fact that people exposed to nuclear radiation and or uranium may mutate both physically and/or mentally if they survive. What I did not understand was Nikolav’s goal by purposefully mutating the patients who survived the explosion but were trapped in the mental ward of the hospital.
  
  This is definitely a young adult book, but for many, after high school, I feel like it would quickly lose its strong appeal. It is a good book but I feel like it would need to be a little more detailed, making the book a bit longer in order for it to have more of an appeal to adults. I ended up rating this book a 2 out of 4. This is because while I enjoy books set around Chernobyl (especially if mutated people or zombies are involved because it offers a plausible explanation for it) this book fell short of my expectations. One of the main issues I had was how the book fails to give solid reasoning and jumps from one topic to another.

• Laiai

  Anisa Chowdhury is the best author ever!!! She writes amazingly and her words are the best. All those horror lovers, DEFINITELY get this book, and if you don't, BIG MISTAKE! I love this book so much, I think I am obsessed with it!!!! Make more Anisa, I am a seriously huge fan!!!!

• Chung-Ae

  This is seriously the best horror book ever, I definitely want more of these types of books from her. She is definitely the type of person who should make a series of books because I am sure they would go big. I would love to see her as a famous person walking in the red carpet with these type of books, so please Anisa I am begging you, make more of these types of books because your writing is seriously off the chart and well your words still linger in my heart!!!!
  
  Thank you, by a kpop-lover.

• Kusnee Rauk

  My fav book in the world. She needs to go big. I'm game for another one of these.

• maria Selbia

  Great book. Really mystifies me with the wording she used to transform her sentences into such a thrilling adventure. I highly recommend this book to viewers of the world. As a horror book, it really has such a gripping subject which entitles me to yearn for more words. If planning to buy, I say go for it! Totally worth your money.

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