No matter where you live, you will recognize the inept government officials portrayed by the author, individuals looking out only for the bottom line, who couldn't care less about the well being of others as long as they get to continue making money. I had to pause reading several times because of events in the novel, but the plot itself never dragged for me, largely because of the deft writing.

just two people caught in the eye of a political storm that could tear them apart, the subterfuge, the trauma. I have one quibble, and I hope it won’t be a deterrent for many readers, as I think it was a gutsy stylistic choice (and one I still don’t fully understand)… but this book does not follow standard capitalization. there are all those scenes clearly written to be shocking, but their punch-lines have been glaringly obvious to u from pages before.That trope is turned up to eleven in this book, as is appropriate for a novel about radiation experiments in Soviet Russia. Basing her novel The Half Life of Valery K on this event, author Natasha Pulley's fictional "City 40" is modeled on Chelyabinsk-40, or as it is known today, Ozersk.

With Anna and Shenkov resuming their marriage, Valery will have to figure out where his place is in this relationship. Please shelve this book next to The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and all the other The X Lives of Y books. What can you do when a government refuses to hear bad news about a deadly pandemic, climate change, a possible accident that will endanger the lives of millions, and instead prefers to broadcast lies and misinformation?

That means you will probably die of it," further informing her that she will die before she can grow up. Natasha Pulley’s whole thing is like M/M interracial romances in exotic (to a white British woman) locales, usually with a very plot-heavy timey wimey/conspiracy/adventure element which is very fun!

Also, I think I prefer her stories where there is more magical realism or fantastical elements, mixed with historical settings. i am thoroughly confused how anyone else could, but i guess i just wasn't the right reader for this. It is based on real events — a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster and subsequent cover-up in rural Russia in 1957 — and fills in the blanks with a plot, and characters, that teeter between darkly plausible and science fictional (so far, so Soviet). But there's something not quite right about the radioactivity heat map provided by the scientists/KGB overseeing the site, and Valery is determined to to figure out what's really going on and sound the alarm bells.With him we also get a subtle but empathic representation of neurodivergence and nonbinary identity. I’d rather read about two people are intentionally written to be insane and delusional and struggling to trust each other — which is what I thought I was getting!

I keep hearing all this about radiation, but frankly, comrade, if I can't see it and it doesn't bite, I'm not that worried. Valery fits into the mold of the classic Pulley protagonist: intelligent, burns with a quiet inner fire, and desperately alone in this world. is Pulley expecting her readers to be actually invested in these Austen-esque weepy scenes between these two men who spend all their time feeling sorry for themselves for committing atrocities and never have an iota of tension with each other over their actions?Kolkhanov once more, and he's expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. His findings reveal some pretty horrific information, but his attempts to report what he's learned are met with indifference and denial, even by his closest colleagues. I really loved Valery as a protagonist and thought Pulley did a great job of creating a character with a troubled past trying to work through his own issues while also working through a rather large main plot. Resovskaya briefs the scientists about the Lighthouse and why the area was intentionally exposed to radiation by the Soviet government in 1957: to study the effects it might have on an entire ecosystem. e. take revenge on the rapists by murdering them all, in an attempt to make the audience sympathise with him more.