The Book:
Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman
Published August 13, 2024 by Little, Brown and Company
Date read: July 27, 2024
Find more August 2024 new releases here.
Worst Case Scenario spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Katy
Beth (gave the name Lily to Katy)
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic national crisis with global implications.
The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now.
In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people—power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends— are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.
Worst Case Scenario Spoilers
The Reveal:
Dani was able to save Connor. She was able to get out to the van with help from RJ’s truck. Right when she reached Connor the van fell into the water and got trapped at the bottom of the river, but luckily there was an air bubble that kept them alive until divers could rescue them. Their story ends with them being delivered to the hospital by helicopter, but they’re seen alive in the epilogue when Dani gets a presidential honor.
At the plant, the first course of action was to stop the reactor pool from leaking. There was no way to do it from the outside, so it was suggested that an underwater welder patch the hole from the inside. Steve volunteered, since a real underwater welder wouldn’t be able to get there in time.
The plan worked, but the radioactivity quickly ate away at Steve’s suit. He panicked and swam while the welding arc was hot, electrocuting himself. He passed out and sank way too close to the coils, but George and the crane operator were able to rescue him. Once he was pulled out, a plant medic said that at best he had one year to live. Worst case, only a month.
Despite that victory of repairing the pool, the worst of it wasn’t over yet. Jocelyn found that water was leaking into the building that the plane ended up in, which risked the power that controlled all the cooling in the plant (we learned in the beginning that the biggest risk was losing the cooling, which would cause meltdown and the resulting fire would be impossible to put out). They flew Matt’s drone in to see the extent of the damage. It was clear that all the controls were underwater, and the only way to override was manually. The water in this area was radioactive as well, so the person that went in to do it manually would certainly die.
As the adults argued over who should go, Matt stepped up to volunteer his dad Steve. It made the most sense since Steve had already been fatally exposed to radiation, and that was the only thing standing in his way of volunteering. What Jocelyn didn’t tell anyone else was that the manual override required two people. She quietly sacrificed herself as well, not telling Ethan or the others until it was too late.
Jocelyn and Steve were able to complete their mission (opening a manual floodgate that would empty the water from the room? Or something) but both died in the process. They saved the town and the US as a whole. The scene cut from their efforts in the pump room to the epilogue.
The Ending:
In the epilogue, the president posthumously awarded Steve and Jocelyn medals of valor, accepted by Ethan and Matt. It is clear that the president fell in love with Jocelyn in the short time he spoke with her. Matt was doing okay, accepting that his father died a hero.
I hope these Worst Case Scenario spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
Thank you to Hachette Audio for this gifted ALC!
I’m the biggest TJ Newman fan, and WORST CASE SCENARIO only solidified this fact further. I’ve rated each of her books five stars, and somehow they keep getting better every time! I can honestly say this one was by far my favorite.
This author can paint a picture like no one else. My favorite books are always the ones I can vividly picture in my mind, and TJ does this so well. I felt like I was in Weketa with these characters as I was listening, feeling it all alongside them. Joe Morton’s narration absolutely made the emotions come alive.
I know nothing about nuclear power, but I felt that I could easily picture this power plant and feel the pressure of the global threat if these characters couldn’t contain the fallout. I felt so strongly for the characters in this book, and love how they all come together for the good of the town and the nation.
I only wish this book was longer! No pressure, TJ, but I already can’t wait for your next novel.
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