Hot Zone, written by Richard Preston, was published in 1995. This thrilling non-fiction novel has terrified all its readers from the first chapter to the last sentence and I was no different. The book is based on a true story about the 1980s Ebola virus outbreak in a monkey house in Washington DC. The author shows us the severity of this virus by introducing the character Charles Monet who contracts the virus by visiting Kenya. More specifically visit Mount Elgon and Kitum Cave with a friend. When he returns home he becomes ill and his symptoms begin with headache and back pain and then progress to fever, red eyes and vomiting. Doctors are unable to treat his illness to the best of their ability because they don't know what it is. When their antibiotics have no effect on Charles, they airlift him to another hospital. While on the plane he vomits blood with black spots. Things get worse until he finally dies a painful death when his internal organs fail and he bleeds. Monet's autopsy is that of someone who has been dead for days even though he only died a few hours ago. Some of the doctors who were treating Monet become infected and die, showing us how contagious and dangerous this virus is. The virus is so dangerous because it is not a normal virus. It is not shaped like a ball like most viruses, it has hair-like tendrils that tangle together. It kills one in four humans who contract it and seek medical attention. Scientists are afraid of this virus and what it can do, so they try to find out where it originated from. They believe it comes from an island in Africa highly populated with diseased monkeys, comparable to the origin of AIDS. Nancy Jax, a mother and veterinarian for...... middle of paper ..... .the cave that Monet visited many years ago to do research. All he sees is a potential host and an answer to how Monet and the baby got sick. This novel was truly scary. It was scary because it's a true story. It makes me uncomfortable and nervous to think about how quickly a virus could mutate, spread and wipe out the population. If a new virus were to emerge for which there is no cure and which was fatal to humans, it would be a disaster. It would be a race between scientists trying to find a vaccination and a cure, and the virus would spread and become more powerful. Science is at once an amazing and beautiful thing and at the same time a terrifying and ugly thing. The novel itself was well written and intense. I was always on the edge of my seat and eager to move on. It was so captivating because people love to read about the unknown and the scary.