As in as soon as I start reading, it absolutely had a chokehold on me and I did not want to put it down for anything.
Worst Case Scenario starts out straight into the action so when I say it was impossible to turn away from it immediately, I mean it. This also means it kind of feels like a more abrupt introduction to characters than a book might typically have with setup of a slower burn variety, but in my opinion it worked so well. Getting introduced to the various point of view characters right in the midst of this strife acts in its own way as a means of getting to know them, just in a highly tense, high stakes situation that really reveals the truth of who they are. And I somehow felt so invested in their survival and success this way which made me feel like it was so well done.
This is perhaps a weird qualifier but the thing that fully pushed me to rate this book as a five star read is the fact that it made me cry or tear up. Multiple times. I was so emotionally invested that I was all over the place, and for me this makes for a stellar book. Not least when it’s done in such a brief span of pages, AND a standalone to boot.
I also hugely enjoyed how informative this book is. It takes information, in this case about nuclear plants, and makes it accessible to the average person who probably isn’t going to know, or even have known to think about, the finer workings of it. Not only that, but it manages to make it interesting, not done in a way that feels like you’re getting the textbook breakdown of the complexities of how nuclear power plants work.
I honestly feel like T. J. Newman gets better with each subsequent book. I’ve enjoyed all of them, but I’ve continued to love each book more and more, and Worst Case Scenario continues this streak. I legitimately just wanted to read it from start to finish it was so good and had me so completely sucked into the story and the characters. This is for sure the kind of book that is bittersweet to end because I was so addicted to the story and just needed to know how things turned out, but was also so sad that it was over. I don’t know how I’ll get by waiting for the next release because I am so completely a diehard fan of this author at this point. Moral of the story: read Worst Case Scenario. It is 100% worth it.
