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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
We need to talk about this.
This was an excellent subject for a book. “Oh I’m going to give these girls a voice and turn them into real people.”
She did not succeed until the very end. The last section is excellent. Heart wrenching and emotional. Catherine IS given a voice and a personality. Almost gave it another start for this alone… but no.
None of the other girls really are given much heart. One of the girls (spoiler alert) LOSES AN ARM and I kept getting her mixed up with other girls. How is that possible? How can you bury a one-armed person so deeply in a list of names and facts that she becomes indistinguishable from the others?
There are 5 “radium girls” in the famous trial. I had to google which 5 it was who were involved. There were other trials with other girls, and that’s probably the point, but I got so confused with all the name dropping that I couldn’t keep track.
There’s another girl — one of the first— who goes by a nickname. She switches between the nickname and the legal name so that it’s tricky to piece out who she means. She drops (what could have been) a bomb involving the girl later in the book and when she says her name (like we’re supposed to know who she is) and it took me a while to catch on.
The author apparently thinks that describing the way someone looks (including “with features too small for her face”… “with sticking out ears”) is giving someone character. But no. Its not. Honestly, those are opinions. She was afraid to speculate too much on the personalities (even after reading letters and talking with family members) but calling judgement on looks? Totally okay?
If she had written it like a novel (even if it was a little speculative) and focused on the girls one at time it would’ve been excellent. Also tbh there’s nothing but good stuff said about the girls. It’s so surface that they’re all interchangeable and personality-less. Even our villain isn’t villainized enough— I know he didn’t need a voice, but in all good stories the villain is just a member of the cast, until he’s not.
Instead she creates just another doomed list of names and dates and injuries. It drags on and on, honestly. At one point, I said aloud that the book was “horrible”… and I wasn’t referring to the horrific fate of the girls.
I read another review that mentioned a list of characters at the beginning of the book. The audiobook doesn’t have that. When I went to look it up I realized there are multiple girls with the same name. The Katherine from the beginning is not the Catherine from the end! Completely lost on this audio reader. According to this list there are 33 girls mentioned by name in the book and that’s just a ctrl-f search— some are listed as “sister” or “niece” and probably ended up working there too.
https://www.bookcompanion.com/the_radium_girls_character_list.html
There was no need for all of that. Or if that was important to the author, to personify each one, then write it in little vignettes so we can keep everyone separate.
I also just realized that the book is so poorly organized that I had Mollie (Amelia) and Peg (Margaret) mixed into one person by the end. The more I read the character list the more characters I realize were separate people.
She did the exact opposite of what she set out to do.
This was an excellent subject for a book. “Oh I’m going to give these girls a voice and turn them into real people.”
She did not succeed until the very end. The last section is excellent. Heart wrenching and emotional. Catherine IS given a voice and a personality. Almost gave it another start for this alone… but no.
None of the other girls really are given much heart. One of the girls (spoiler alert) LOSES AN ARM and I kept getting her mixed up with other girls. How is that possible? How can you bury a one-armed person so deeply in a list of names and facts that she becomes indistinguishable from the others?
There are 5 “radium girls” in the famous trial. I had to google which 5 it was who were involved. There were other trials with other girls, and that’s probably the point, but I got so confused with all the name dropping that I couldn’t keep track.
There’s another girl — one of the first— who goes by a nickname. She switches between the nickname and the legal name so that it’s tricky to piece out who she means. She drops (what could have been) a bomb involving the girl later in the book and when she says her name (like we’re supposed to know who she is) and it took me a while to catch on.
The author apparently thinks that describing the way someone looks (including “with features too small for her face”… “with sticking out ears”) is giving someone character. But no. Its not. Honestly, those are opinions. She was afraid to speculate too much on the personalities (even after reading letters and talking with family members) but calling judgement on looks? Totally okay?
If she had written it like a novel (even if it was a little speculative) and focused on the girls one at time it would’ve been excellent. Also tbh there’s nothing but good stuff said about the girls. It’s so surface that they’re all interchangeable and personality-less. Even our villain isn’t villainized enough— I know he didn’t need a voice, but in all good stories the villain is just a member of the cast, until he’s not.
Instead she creates just another doomed list of names and dates and injuries. It drags on and on, honestly. At one point, I said aloud that the book was “horrible”… and I wasn’t referring to the horrific fate of the girls.
I read another review that mentioned a list of characters at the beginning of the book. The audiobook doesn’t have that. When I went to look it up I realized there are multiple girls with the same name. The Katherine from the beginning is not the Catherine from the end! Completely lost on this audio reader. According to this list there are 33 girls mentioned by name in the book and that’s just a ctrl-f search— some are listed as “sister” or “niece” and probably ended up working there too.
https://www.bookcompanion.com/the_radium_girls_character_list.html
There was no need for all of that. Or if that was important to the author, to personify each one, then write it in little vignettes so we can keep everyone separate.
I also just realized that the book is so poorly organized that I had Mollie (Amelia) and Peg (Margaret) mixed into one person by the end. The more I read the character list the more characters I realize were separate people.
She did the exact opposite of what she set out to do.
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The most devastating book I’ve consumed in a long time. I found myself dreading the upcoming pages because only partway through I’d think, “This cannot get worse.” But it did every time.
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced