Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

131 reviews

earth_and_silver's review

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Chronic illness

Moderate: Cancer, Miscarriage, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Physical abuse

roksyreads's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

A heartbreaking and inspirational account of resilience and bravery in the face of corporate greed, corruption, and utter negligence, The Radium Girls is a must read for anyone interested in social and cultural history. Moore paints in vivid detail the women (and their supporters) at the forefront of the movement to hold their employer(s) to account, and whose actions made significant contributions to early workers' rights movements more broadly. It was a privilege to read this book again after first reading it in February 2020.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

jackslackofshelfcontrol's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

sometimes_samantha_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

4.5

The writing felt a little bit slow at times, but the story overall was shocking, intriguing, and sad. I'm glad something was learned from these ladies, but so much more should've been done for them sooner. A very interesting read.

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Content Warnings

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

savreads28's review

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.0

The book was very informative on the subject of the Radium Girls. There was almost too much detail and getting through the book is definitely not for the weak. I listened to a lot of it on audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Terminal illness, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Cancer, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

infinite_harness9030's review

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexism, Blood, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Murder

gingerlaura's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.25

<i><b>Lip... Dip... Paint.</i></b>

This is such an important story to be told. It's not only about thousands of victims due to radium poisoning, it's also about determination, perseverance, being united and standing for justice.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to read the story about the Radium Girls. They suffered badly, and no one would listen to them for a long, long time. They were hard working women, just trying to make a living, and oblivious to the fact that radium was, in fact, poisonous. The company was actively ignoring the problem too, because even though radium was a new element to work with, it's danger had long been established in literature before the dial-paining factories were build.

<b><i>That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.</i></b>

The fact that the company failed to acknowledge the hazards of radium poisoning, fought the girls tooth and nail while the evidence was <i>right there</i>, is what made my heart break for the girls. They sabotaged medical examinations, fought every case in court under the name of 'radium isn't poisonous', they made evidence disappear and made up fake reports. I cannot express how angry I am that innocent women had to put up with this. I can only admire their strength for standing up for what they thought was right; even when they only had a few months left to live they still stood their ground in court.

<b>Tom watched his wife from the doorway; watched as she demonstrated how she had been killed. Though he had thought himself wrung out of tears, he wept quietly, unashamedly, as Catherine showed off the simple movement that had left her little more than a living corpse.</i></b>

The girls fought hard, even when it seemed hopeless, but in the end it did pay off. They got their justice, and I couldn't be more happy for them. Even if it was too late, in the end the women won and got the justice they deserved. They not only won, but because they also donated their bodies to science they taught the world a lot about radium and what radioactivity does to the body in general. They also caused laws to be put into place for a safe work place, we have them to thank for it:

<b><i>The dial-painters' case ultimately led to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which now works nationally in the United States to ensure safe working conditions.</i></b>

Even though the dial-paining companies have long been closed down, the results of actively ignoring the radium problems are still felt today. After a lot of sick patients could be directly linked to the factory, it was ultimately demolished. This demolishing was easier said than done unfortunately, because radium is still found in that place till this day.

<b><i>It was an operation that would take decades; in 2015, the clean-up was still going on.</b></i>

Like I said before, I think this is an important story to be told and I learned a lot from reading this book. I can recommend it to anyone, it's quite an unknown tragedy even though it had a big impact on society. 
The only thing I didn't enjoy about this was the writing style. Though I do think it's important to name as many of the radium girls by name as to not to forget them, mentioning a new one and describing their hair color, eye color, personalities and boyfriends every other sentence became a bit overwhelming. I didn't really know who was who anymore, which is unfortunate. On top of that the time and place of things got a bit jumbled too sometimes, which caused me to be confused at times.

Anyways, go read this book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Medical content, Terminal illness, Cancer, Death, and Gore

jonie_rich's review against another edition

dark inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

I thought this was beautifully written! Be that as it may, you’re going to have to be in a good headspace to read this. It is grotesque, heartbreaking, infuriating, and chilling. The post script genuinely caused me to gasp. I had to take a break a couple of days in and read something else for a little while. However, I absolutely recommend this book, especially if this is a subject or a time period that you’re interested in. The author clearly did her research. I learned a lot while I was reading it and found it very compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Child death, Bullying, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Animal death, Death, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma

kilonshele's review

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

shan2's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Minor: Domestic abuse