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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This was a very intriguing book. It drew me in to its setting and some of its characters, but... it fell slightly short of my hopes for it. I had mixed reactions to the ending: some of it felt right and fitting, and some felt designed to bring the novel to its end instead of reflecting the characters we had been following. The ending also just wasn’t satisfying to me, despite the epilogue telling us the fates of the main characters.
I received an e-ARC of this novel from Edelwiess, this in no way affects my opinions about The Atomic City Girls. I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of this book but my rating mostly reflects some disappointment with the characters and how each story line wasn't quite fleshed out the way I wanted them to be. I disliked a few elements of this novel, but I'll preface the rest of the review by saying that I liked the overall story and message that Beard conveyed.
This story follows June, Sam, Cici, and Joe who each have different jobs within the Oak Ridge military base. As far as picking a favorite character, I have to say Joe was the best one! He is so sweet and caring and kind towards his young friend Ralph and loves his family so much. I found that I could identify with him because he was the most empathetic character who understood how life in the 1940s works. Joe's practicality was endearing, even if he was hesitant to fight for his own rights as a black worker in Oak Ridge. It was nice to see that his story ended well after he was kept on as a janitor and allowed to move his wife and kids to live with him there. The only downside was losing Ralph, which was heart breaking, but I can see that it needed to happen to make this fictional story realistic.
Full review **with spoilers** is on my blog: https://ladykatiereads.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/lets-talk-about-the-atomic-city-girls-by-janet-beard-spoiler-free-arc-review
This story follows June, Sam, Cici, and Joe who each have different jobs within the Oak Ridge military base. As far as picking a favorite character, I have to say Joe was the best one! He is so sweet and caring and kind towards his young friend Ralph and loves his family so much. I found that I could identify with him because he was the most empathetic character who understood how life in the 1940s works. Joe's practicality was endearing, even if he was hesitant to fight for his own rights as a black worker in Oak Ridge. It was nice to see that his story ended well after he was kept on as a janitor and allowed to move his wife and kids to live with him there. The only downside was losing Ralph, which was heart breaking, but I can see that it needed to happen to make this fictional story realistic.
Full review **with spoilers** is on my blog: https://ladykatiereads.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/lets-talk-about-the-atomic-city-girls-by-janet-beard-spoiler-free-arc-review
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I didn't realise that this was a work of fiction till way into the second half of the book. I was expecting something like Hidden Figures. Given that I should've read up carefully about it, I still took away stars because it was more of a kind-of love story than anything else. It gave some details of the work that happened there but barely.
The title is a misnomer, it’s not really about women. From there, it went down hill. A quick read, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it
I went back and forth as to giving this a 3 or 4. Here’s why - the fictional story was good. I enjoyed the historical aspect of it. I do wish that these different point of views had come together at some point. Also, there were some great black and white photos scattered throughout the book. HOWEVER - They had nothing to do with what was going on in the story and were not labeled or captioned in anyway. So, they didn’t add anything to the story and really just ended up annoying me. I wanted to know the details and I had no way of knowing them. So, those seemed like a silly addition to the book.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great to read about an obscure event that was so crucial to World War 2. You wonder what the women and others thought when they all finally found out. I know in the book the all seemed happy, but I would hope some had some reservations. How interesting to see this entire city pop up to support the Manhattan Project.