If you’ve ever wondered what the world might truly look like in the first hours after a nuclear escalation, Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario is both illuminating and terrifying. From the opening pages, Jacobson drops readers into a world unrecognizable yet alarmingly plausible, tracing the immediate chaos and the long-term fallout with a meticulous, almost clinical eye. The book’s structure is one of its greatest strengths: each chapter zeroes in on specific consequences, from decimated cities and failing infrastructure to the slow, invisible creep of radiation and societal collapse, creating a sense of inevitability that lingers long after the last page.

Jacobsen’s prose is sharply evocative, conjuring imagery that is as vivid as it is horrifying. The charred remains of familiar landmarks, the eerie silence in once-bustling streets, and the surreal, almost apocalyptic beauty of radioactive sunsets—all these details hit with cinematic force, making the scenario feel disturbingly imminent in today’s geopolitical climate. The reader can’t help but imagine the headlines and human stories behind the statistics, which makes the scenario’s plausibility all the more chilling.

If there’s a quibble, it lies in moments that verge on the “Hollywood blockbuster,” particularly the dramatic deaths of senior political figures. While these episodes heighten tension, they occasionally feel exaggerated, pulling slightly away from the otherwise stark realism that anchors the book.

Still, these are minor blemishes on a work that is otherwise rigorous, gripping, and terrifyingly convincing. Jacobsen succeeds in turning abstract fear into something immediate and tangible—making Nuclear War: A Scenario essential reading for anyone trying to understand what a real nuclear crisis might look like.