Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

10 reviews

tea_at_mole_end's review against another edition

dark inspiring sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Body horror, Medical content, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cancer, Miscarriage, Death, Sexism, and Grief

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Infertility, Pregnancy, Child death, War, Classism, and Suicidal thoughts

nrogers_1030's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

5.0

It's appalling what happened to these poor women. I felt the book could have been shorter & the narration a bit less monotone, but I still enjoyed the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

Minor: Abortion and Domestic abuse

Some of the pictures in the book are a bit gruesome.

diannaphantomfiction's review

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

My only issue with this book was the length. While I understand telling the full story, at times the chapters seemed to drag. 

Otherwise, it has been a long time since I read a story that made me feel all the emotions possible, from disgust to hope. This was an absolutely wonderful read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Ableism, Death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Body horror, and Cancer

Moderate: Infertility, Body horror, Gore, and Miscarriage

Minor: Domestic abuse

This is all true, so it will feel fairly heavy at times, but all of this present, sometimes in graphic detail

rosemaryandrue's review

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

Radium is a fad in early twentieth century America, and consequently makes for booming business for numerous large corporations. So when employees of the United States Radium Corporation start falling ill with a mysterious, horrific disease, the industry scrambles to cover things up.

I've heard the story of the Radium Girls before, but I did not really know the details of the struggles that the women went through, and how thoroughly they were betrayed by their employers. The author wrote in the afterword that she wanted to put the stories of the women at the center of the tale, and I thought she succeeded in this remarkably, really bringing home the horror of the situation. I also learned for the first time how these women contributed with their lives and deaths to the study and management of radioactive elements to this very day.

However, I thought the end was abrupt - after the death of Catherine Wolfe Donahue, we whizz through the subsequent court cases - I suppose because the endless appeals have been covered in depth elsewhere, but I wish we got some more detail there about how it was achieved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Miscarriage, Sexism, Cancer, Infertility, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

fraise's review

challenging informative sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Death of parent, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Infertility, Miscarriage, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion

frogsinacoat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexism, Classism, Death, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail

madeleinebay's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Classism, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Misogyny

bad_bookworm_h's review

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Classism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion

litalia's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Medical content, and Classism

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, and Infertility

Minor: Abortion, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

If you're one of the people with nightmares about all your teeth randomly falling out...maybe avoid this one.

jhbandcats's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

I really, really, really liked this till I got to the third and final section, Justice. Before that, the book was a remarkably fast read, absolutely compelling in the story it was telling. It's solidly researched with copious contemporary information (journals, letters, court transcripts, etc.) plus interviews with the women's descendants. It also includes a large section of photos.

Reading the first section, Knowledge, was like watching an accident in slow motion: you know what's going to happen, you're horrified, and you can do nothing to stop it. Reading the second section, Power, was an exercise in frustration: the medical, legal, and corporate powers were arrayed against those suffering from radium poisoning. The author really brings their struggle to life, showing the seemingly endless obstacles facing them.

The section on Justice describes the women's efforts to fight the corporations. Some of the women were literally dying as they testified. However, the writing is increasingly histrionic and hagiographic, making the women out to be a combination of martyrs and gods. At one point it's speculated that the spirit of one of the dead women embodies a wild bird that visits her friend. I grew tired of that quickly.

All in all, though, I'm really glad I read this and I definitely recommend it. This story of the cavalier corporate despoiling of employees is one that needed to be told. Because of these women, employee safeguards were adopted that live on today in OSHA.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, and Miscarriage