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eryn_reads 's review for:
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
The Radium Girls tells the story of the real-life dial painters who were dangerously exposed to radium in the line of their work and then left out to dry by the companies that employed them and exposed them to that danger in the first place.
I appreciated the attention to detail that the author paid to the girls themselves, the real-life women who lived and suffered and died all for the act of painting luminous clocks. The amount of detail made the women and what they went through that much more real. It’s clear that a lot of care and research went into the writing of this book, and it is a harrowing tragedy to wade through.
That being said, my biggest critique of the book is the way that it novelizes the story, at times in a very dramatic voice. With all of the research that went into this, I wish it was more just stated fact and less dramatization. The whole situation that the radium girls were in was harrowing enough without the use of dramatic narrative language. “This is a non-fiction book; just state the facts,” is how I felt at times. I suppose the narrative aspect does make the historical nature of the reading more palatable for some readers, but it wasn’t for me.
I appreciate the story of the radium girls and the effect that their lives had on history, but I wouldn’t read this particular book about them again.
I appreciated the attention to detail that the author paid to the girls themselves, the real-life women who lived and suffered and died all for the act of painting luminous clocks. The amount of detail made the women and what they went through that much more real. It’s clear that a lot of care and research went into the writing of this book, and it is a harrowing tragedy to wade through.
That being said, my biggest critique of the book is the way that it novelizes the story, at times in a very dramatic voice. With all of the research that went into this, I wish it was more just stated fact and less dramatization. The whole situation that the radium girls were in was harrowing enough without the use of dramatic narrative language. “This is a non-fiction book; just state the facts,” is how I felt at times. I suppose the narrative aspect does make the historical nature of the reading more palatable for some readers, but it wasn’t for me.
I appreciate the story of the radium girls and the effect that their lives had on history, but I wouldn’t read this particular book about them again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage