Ellen Gail's Reviews > The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

Storytelling is essential to survival. It’s what turns preparation into ritual and victims into saviors.

I had this review 95% written and my computer died because its battery is crap. And now it's gone.

It was a bomb review. Just pretend you read it and it was REALLY good.

Unfortunately, you are left with the half-assed version of my review, because I've had an extremely rough week; I basically have the mental energy of a toad right now.

Veering away from the disaster that is my life, let's talk about The Unthinkable.

“Life becomes like molten metal,” he wrote. “Old customs crumble, and instability rules.”

For a book about panic, 9/11, hurricanes, and school shootings, The Unthinkable is infused with a comforting sense of hope. It's absolutely horrifying to hear the tales of a woman who stumbled down the stairs of the World Trade Center, or a teenager who lived through the Virginia Tech violence. But these tragic stories have a silver lining - humanity is better, kinder, and smarter than you'd ever think. Even in times of disaster, most people choose to be good. To do good.



And that's the first thing I want to commend Amanda Ripley on. She wrote a well-researched, thorough, optimistic book about disasters and the ways human nature moves though them. It's too easy to say it won't happen to me. Not this plane, not this storm. You've always been safe, so your brain sees no reason to think otherwise.



There's a lot of talk about our instinctual reactions in the face of danger. Why do we perform acts of heroism? How do crowds of people suddenly turn deadly? What physical reactions do our bodies go through when faced with unimaginable fear. How do we keep from freezing and move past denial ?

How are you most likely to die? Think for a moment: Given your own profile, what do you really think is most likely to kill you?

It's more a survival mentality type of story, but there's a bit of practical advice sprinkled throughout. Check your smoke detectors. Pay attention to emergency exit locations. Never try to drive through a flooded road. And finally, know what disasters you could personally face, and mentally rehearse for what you will do. For example, I live right on the border of tornado alley, as well as being close to a major fault line. So it makes much more sense for me to plan for either of those options as opposed to a tsunami.

I ain't afraid of no tsunami.



When people believe that survival is negotiable, they can be wonderfully creative. All it takes is the audacity to imagine that our behavior matters.

The Unthinkable is a remarkable work of nonfiction, realistic without pessimism, and full of personal, eye opening stories of disaster. At it's core, it is a book that believes in humanity as a group and as individuals. No only CAN we survive, we will.