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Review of The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

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I wrote this a while back (it's actually my UNT Honors College admittance essay) and just came across it while browsing my computer. I thought it would be fun to post, so let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Mr. Richard Preston,

            I recently read your book, The Hot Zone, which I found intriguing in terms of the subject matter. However for a nonfiction piece it had misleading information and provided irrelevant detail. Subsequently, these factors make you out to be quite unprofessional. Therefore, I want to provide you with some input regarding your book, so you can avoid this reputation in the future.

            I primarily want to address how misleading your writing is. As a nonfiction author, people rely on you to provide accurate information. Technically you do offer a good amount of truth, but it becomes obscured by your excessive guesswork noted only by a brief “perhaps”. When I found the fifth sentence of chapter one to start out in this manner, I immediately knew this book would not be a reliable source on the subject of Ebola. I was disappointed to discover how contrary to the statements made in the preface, which was written to reassure the reader of the book’s accuracy, The Hot Zone was riddled with superfluous speculations with no purpose other than to make the story read like fiction.

            You start the book with a fair amount of detail regarding the first man who died of Ebola, but you add so many personal theories on his life that it becomes difficult to distinguish his real habits from the fictional ones you conjured. I can understand you wanting to do this to build the character, but you have enough factual information about him that your additions become excessive. This book is not supposed to be fiction. People read nonfiction for information and fiction for entertainment. The elements of each can be combined, but they should be used to complement each other, not obscure the truth as you did in The Hot Zone. This makes it seem as though you do not respect yourself as a non-fiction writer and strive only for the fame fiction authors receive.

            Nonfiction should be interesting on its own. You should be passionate enough about a subject that you do not need to include irrelevant information to make the story interesting; it brings the storyline nowhere. You provide the reader with the details of an Ebola researcher’s parrot and all of the bird’s catchphrases. You include how the scientist’s son likes to play football, but you neglect to mention how almost none of the people in contact with the infected patients become ill—instead making it sound as though Ebola is an extremely easily communicable disease! You supply a plethora of detail regarding unrelated topics but fail to clarify the important factors.

            Consequently, you inadvertently portray yourself as unprofessional. You come across as sadistic through your meticulous descriptions of the characters’ deaths and exaggerations of Ebola’s symptoms. This takes away from the educational aspect of your book, and disappoints those of us who picked it up hoping to learn about the disease.

            I hope you will take these thoughts into consideration when writing your next book.

Sincerely,
Jace Rodriguez


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