Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I honestly wanted to like this book. It's been on a to-read list for a while and on my mind whenever I was picking what to read next. I finally got around to it and now I wonder what made me want to read it in the first place. It was definitely sold based on its context rather than its content. I can't think of another explanation.

Bottom line, this book just isn't well written. Almost in every aspect of the term. In the ways of prose, it just isn't creative. And, every time it does try to be, it fails to ascend beyond the rudimentary. Intellectually, it lacks in a way that feels like an insult considering the subject. The book is 100% what is going on and has no interest or ability to explain the hows and whys.  Both in terms of social dichotomy and the science involved. Even on a technical level, it seems to lack in grammar and sentence structure. It'll succeed in a spell check with Microsoft Word, but that doesn't mean the writing succeeds beyond a juvenile manner. There are just too many ways to point out how this book isn't good.

There is a point where the book says "These are pieces of my jawbone. I pulled them from my jaw." (Sorry if this isn't a 100% perfect quote, but I didn't feel like looking it up.) I just remember this because I had to put down the book and rub my temples for five minutes. I mean, where else would you pull pieces of your jawbone from? Your elbow? It's just a key example of how poor the writing is. Sorry for the rant. It's been on my mind since I read it and, if I didn't write about it, it would turn into a brain tumor and kill me.

While I wanted to like this book, I still didn't hate it by its end. If someone asks me if I would recommend it, it would a profound 'hell no'. It isn't bad in a sense I felt it was a gross adaptation of the art, rather that the narrative needed a complete rewrite. The perspective and focus on certain details detract from any emotional impact and might have been served better by a character throughline and/or a strong POV. Rather than the foggy overview, this book ended up being. It's not the story I disliked as much as how it was written. If that makes any damn sense. 

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