Scan barcode
A review by okevamae
Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict
4.0
Based on the true story of Rosalind Franklin, the female scientist who first discovered the structure of DNA, only to have credit for her breakthrough claimed by male colleagues.
I was interested when I saw that this was by the author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, which I enjoyed, and even more interested when I read what the book was about. I don’t know anything about Rosalind Franklin aside from the one line I wrote above, and even that I wouldn’t necessarily have remembered just from hearing her name without the accompanying mention of Watson and Crick. As with her book about Agatha Christie, Marie Benedict writes a compelling story that centers on a notable woman in history.
Since reading this, I have read up enough about Rosalind Franklin to know that Marie Benedict did her research for this project. She added in quite a lot of details about Franklin’s life, and has an excellent way of describing her highly technical work in a way that is reasonably easy for the average fiction reader to understand – or understand well enough to keep up with the book, anyway. Other details appear to be extrapolated by the author from what is known about Franklin, such as her love affairs and her blasé attitude towards exposure to radiation.
The passion that Rosalind Franklin had for science is most certainly based in fact, and comes through palpably in this novel. But the book also does an excellent job of fleshing Rosalind out into a fully realized person, one whose impact on science is lesser known but profound.
CW: Misogyny typical to the time period
I received an advanced copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was interested when I saw that this was by the author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, which I enjoyed, and even more interested when I read what the book was about. I don’t know anything about Rosalind Franklin aside from the one line I wrote above, and even that I wouldn’t necessarily have remembered just from hearing her name without the accompanying mention of Watson and Crick. As with her book about Agatha Christie, Marie Benedict writes a compelling story that centers on a notable woman in history.
Since reading this, I have read up enough about Rosalind Franklin to know that Marie Benedict did her research for this project. She added in quite a lot of details about Franklin’s life, and has an excellent way of describing her highly technical work in a way that is reasonably easy for the average fiction reader to understand – or understand well enough to keep up with the book, anyway. Other details appear to be extrapolated by the author from what is known about Franklin, such as her love affairs and her blasé attitude towards exposure to radiation.
The passion that Rosalind Franklin had for science is most certainly based in fact, and comes through palpably in this novel. But the book also does an excellent job of fleshing Rosalind out into a fully realized person, one whose impact on science is lesser known but profound.
CW: Misogyny typical to the time period
I received an advanced copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.