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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
I've lived within 6 miles of Rocky Flats for 25 years, yet have never given it much thought, if any. Even after infertility struggles and watching my child go through cancer, the words "Rocky Flats" never occurred to me, even though there is zero history of lymphoma in our family. We'll never know the extent that the people and environment of Colorado have been (and are likely still being) damaged, all for the production of nuclear weapons that were meant to "protect" us but may have actually been the very things hurting us.
I appreciate the existence of this book. No one wants to talk about Rocky Flats, but it’s important we don’t forget. How do we deal with this contamination and do better for future generations??
Having grown up in the long shadow of Rocky Flats, I was more than curious about this book. Iversen says she wrote it to confront two of her life's biggest fears -- the plutonium trigger plant and her father's alcoholism. I wish she had written two books, one of her suburban coming of age and one of the plant. Her two fears don't always lock together. Her greatest generation parents (like mine) did prove to be fallible, lost in the boom and bustle of the 50s and 60s. But how did their failures always link to the failures of Rocky Flats. I do applaud Iversen for the tales I'd never really heard or paid enough attention to, that confirmed my niggling suspicions that all the cancer deaths in my neighborhood had something more than genetics in their making. I am amazed by the dangerous miscues and mess-ups of the greatest generation government. I have to ask why I wasn't paying more attention and thank Iversen for shaking me awake.
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
A bit dry to be honest, and there's more than a few occurrences where you wish she would stop talking about her home life and go back to the plant, or stop talking about the plant and return to her own life as the tempo of the story increases and decreases. Overall it was a solid, well written, highly enjoyable book. To me, it stood out for the connection I could make, these weren't just characters in a story, they were real people, people who suffered and died simply for the sake of a few bombs. It told a story that should have been uncovered years ago, the story of the Cold War from the victims view.
Wow. This was quite a book. I think it's important read - please don't just ignore it because you don't want to know about it. It's so important to ask questions and take action, to not be complacent about what is taking place in your world. I liked how the author incorporated her childhood stories with the rest of the book.
I read this for a book club and had never heard of Rocky Flats. I live in Denver now, so it was really interesting as a transplant to read this captivating history through compelling storytelling. I was on the edge of my seat, itching to learn what happened next.
This was an interesting memoir/history of a nuclear weapon facility and its employees. It is always amazing to me that things like this are established in an area and no one wonders whether it could be a serious safety risk for the people working there and the people living nearby. I liked the back and forth structure of the book with the personal being a nice break from all the detail of the science and the legal interventions. It was a bit too long, in my opinion, but I’m glad to have read it.