rachreads925 's review for:

The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard

4.0

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This book has an interesting premise. I knew nothing about Oak Ridge prior to this book - that it even existed or helped the effort towards building a nuclear bomb. So I was intrigued by that aspect, but the book was lacking in some ways. The plot points mentioned on the back of the book don't even begin until around page 150, the characters are kind of flat, and the relationship between the characters is tenuous. This big moment towards the end of the book that connects them all together isn't as dramatic as I expected it to be, and the book ends almost suddenly. Sam Cantor is a main character in the book, but there's no real issue about him being Jewish as I expected there would be for this time period. I did appreciate the epilogue, it was written as if they were real people. The book did a great job about teaching you about that period, what living and working in Oak Ridge was like, and how everything was kept so secret. So for that aspect, I recommend it. On the character side, it could have been a much better book. *Received through a giveaway run by Goodreads, opinions are my own*