"Everyone loses. Everyone."

Simultaneously fascinating and utterly terrifying, this genre-bending book made my heart race and eventually gave me nightmares.  Annie Jacobsen has spent decades researching the nuclear weapon situation across the globe.  She includes so much detail, from the development of these unfathomable weapons to the protocols set in place... hence, the "fascinating" element.  Jacobsen then took the facts and intel she collected and used it to weave an intricate scenario of what we might experience if a nuclear war unfolded... that's where the "utterly terrifying" comes in.  Jacobsen did a great job narrating the audio herself.  I found her voice and cadence added to the tension of the scenario, but also felt that she sometimes sounded unnecessarily tense during the "History Lesson" chapters.  

This was a great read, but it may simply be too upsetting for some.  I'm not a highly anxious person, but I found myself needing to step away from it at times.  For me, though, the most frightening thing about it all were the times she describes the "close calls" that nearly catapulted the world into nuclear wars.  Countries have spent billions of dollars on making these weapons exist with the thought that their mere existence will make them ultimately unnecessary. All we can do, is keep our fingers crossed that that remains true.