The story at the heart of this book is an interesting, complex, and heart-wrenching one, and Laskin tells it very eloquently, in well-written words that are sometimes given life and feeling by his creative use of devices and techniques most commonly found in fiction. It certainly had its shining moments in terms of description and emotional intensity, and that should be noted.
That is where the stars are earned. 

The description and prologue of this book were very promising, but as the book progressed, I was largely disappointed. The plot is bogged down with confusing meteorological details, descriptions of the messy politics behind the blizzard, and long-winded technical passages that had me zoning out and seeing how close I was to end of the book. In my opinion, this book would only read "like a thriller" as the comment on the front cover says, for those invested in the nonfiction genre at large, and excited by a myriad of technical details and descriptions behind a historic weather event. I am just not one of those people.