Heartbreaking but doesn't do the Radium Girls justice at all!

It's a quick read but I would have appreciated more details and clarity. I've always been curious about the Radium Girls and this is my first book about them, so I was expecting so much more.

I enjoyed getting to know the different women as well as learning about their experiences and lives. However, they were hard to tell apart and I don't feel like there was enough insight into each individual. The book also raises several issues but it all felt very surface-level, glossed over, and lacking in depth. The ending was abrupt too.

The art style is unique but unfortunately not my cup of tea, as with the font. I did like the green and purple colour palette though as it felt very fitting.

Maybe those who already have a solid understanding of the Radium Girls will enjoy this more. It's an important and informative read that covers the gist of things but ultimately disappointing.

The images in this book were gorgeous and so much of the plot and emotion was conveyed through the images alone.

The book told the story of the radium girls who were poisoned when painting watches and the health concerns that they faced as a result of their work. The story was easy to understand and was accessible for younger audiences; I could see this book being used with middle school students in a science or history classroom. That said, I do wish that more details were added into this book as the plot, characters, and science all felt a bit shallow. A little more development would have really strengthened this book, and I think it would be adopted by wider audiences if this was done.

Radium Girls retells a story that thankfully has gotten more coverage in the last few years: that of the radium watch dial painters of the 1910s and 1920s. The author's choice to use colored pencil makes for a stunning read, and one that matches well with the concept of ghosts and glowing.

My biggest issue was that I had trouble distinguishing some of the characters at first, as there are quite a few who look similar and the novel isn't long enough for each to form a strong impression in the reader's mind individually. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing - their combined efforts are what make the end of the story - but it definitely was a distraction for me from the rest of the story itself.

Overall, though, this is a great adaptation of a story that has seen more coverage in recent years. I think the art style makes it stand out from other graphic novels and other interpretations of the same story, and ultimately I think the combination provides another avenue for folks to learn about these important women.

Thank you to Letter Better and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

I have always been intrigued by the story of the 'Radium Girls.' Podcasts, books, etc. Seeing that a graphic novel had been created on the topic intrigued me!

The art style was charming and enjoyable. After consuming so many versions of the same story, however, this graphic novel felt repetitive. Still enjoyable, and perfect for anyone who is curious about the history of the Radium Girls.

Graphic illustration is such a great forum for introducing readers to nonfiction. Those who might be intimidated by reading Kate Moore's nonfiction book, The Radium Girls, will be well-served with this title.

I enjoyed the muted colors, especially the glowing green of the radium residue on the skin and clothing of the women. I don't know that I've ever seen colored pencil used in this way before. I also liked the simplistic illustrations as they don't detract from the informative text.

The author, Cy, does a good job of presenting the working friendship of the women as well as the period of the 1920s with its speakeasies, moral restrictiveness, and lack of workplace standards.

Overall, a good read. My one issue is that the story seemed a bit sparse and rushed, especially at the end. Thank you for letting me review the book.

The story of the Radium Girls is not as well known as it should be, especially the women in New Jersey who were critical to later victories but are often all but overlooked. This book helps personalize the women of New Jersey who fought the early fight. The illustrations in this graphic novel somehow perfectly align with the stark story of these women without giving up the vivacity that each of them had. It is an easy read in the sense that it flows very well but it also does a heavy topic justice.

This was a really powerful read. I didn't know anything about The Radium Girls, I knew about radiation poisoning but I didn't exactly know about this historical event.
It was a precise profound graphic book that left me gasping for breath, wiping tears from my eyes. The illustrations were really well done, with muted colours that weren't too hard on the eyes. The cartoon illustrations of such an important historical event was done refreshingly well.
I have tried reading graphic books before only to toss them aside for its a genre I just can't get into, but I have a feeling this book has changed my distaste for this genre.
It gave me enough information to not feel lost and left some for further research on my own. The book lightly brushes several important aspects of that time, like the right to vote and the patriarchal regulations set to keep women in check and honestly under men. The societal conceptions of how a woman should behave and carry herself inorder to be called a pious woman with morals. The simple pleasures of life weren't for women since that meant she wasn't of sound character. All of these things were mentioned briefly in this graphic novel. It made me think of how far we've come and how far we still need to go.
This story is not only empowering but brings to light matters of occupational hazards. For a graphic book of only about a 100 pages, to be able to show you a glimpse of happy women who are full of life turning into shells of themselves, breaking your heart is no small feat.
I highly recommend this book.

This is a fast bittersweet read. For all the suffering these women went through, a lot has changed regarding women and worker's rights. The author's choice of telling the story through the "Radium Girls"' perspective was the high point of it, seeing the progression of their predicament through their eyes was much more painful but necessary. These women must be remembered. The art style and choice of material enchanted me, I've never read a graphic novel entirely colered in pencils. Also a great way of bringing this story to attention in a quick but assertive format.

I simply adore this graphic novel and I am always drawn to more history based ones. So this one captured my interest because of its cover illustration alone and while researching I have found out the story behind it.
It captures the very dramatic origin very well and has a modern drawing style which I simply love.
The use of less colours is fabulous.
It is one of those graphic novels which you can use in history lessons as well.
Simply wonderful.

Fantastic and haunting, with beautiful colors and illustrations (in colored pencil!). I don't think I even need to say more.

Radium Girls is a fantastic story about the ugly truths that business often comes before people. Based on a true story more people should know about the lives, hardships, and mark these women left on the world. The changes they made for everyone; expect themselves. Giving everything they had and more, suffering until the end of their lives.

Both a tragic but important story told with such beautifully haunting details and coloring to match.

**Thank you to Letter Better Publishing Services, Iron Circus Comics, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

The true story of these women is absolutely heartbreaking. At a time when women were just starting to truly break out of the homemaker role and make a mark on the world and their job is killing them.
The artwork was beautifully done and I loved the way they symbolized the death of each woman.

I absolutely adored this book. I knew next to nothing about the “Radium Girls” and the awful situation they were put in so I was really intrigued when I received a copy from Netgallery. I’m so glad I read this and can now understand more about these brave wonderful women. The art style really lent itself to the storytelling and I found it equally beautiful and tragic in parts. I would highly recommend this title as a wonderful remembrance to these women and this time period.

The colored pencil artwork was the perfect medium to capture the era, characters, and events.

Such a tragic story of these women who could have, should have, lived if not for capitalism and misinformation.

Thank you to the author and artist for honoring and sharing the memory of these women who met tragic and completely avoidable deaths. Their bravery and fight till the end aids in protecting worker's rights to this day and we should all be grateful for that.

It's so wild to think that these events were only about a hundred years ago. Doubly tragic knowing that similar stories are still happening to this day.

(I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.)
Expected publication: July 5th 2022

Radium Girls by Cy is a graphic novel that tells a very compelling but awful story. I had no idea about these women who, after working for at a watch factory and ingesting tiny quantities of radium on a daily basis, suffered a tragic destiny. I find it so enfuriating how they weren't told how dangerous their labor truly was.

Set in Orange, New Jesey in 1918, the book follows a group of young women known as the "Ghost Girls". They all work together and the novel shows their friendship overtime: how they have fun, how they grow together, how the fight and how they go through the toughest moments of their lives, when they start getting sick.

What I enjoyed the most about reading this were the illustrations, which were done in colored pencils and it was so so soooo gorgeous. The color palette was also amazing, mainly using greens and purples. Eventhough the story is crearly very tragic, it was frankly beautifully told and shown in the art style.

*Reviewed from uncorrected egalley*

Historical fiction graphic novel (1920s New Jersey/New York) - based on the true stories of the women factory workers who became terminally ill from ingesting radioactive paint and whose lawsuit against the manufacturer improved conditions for future workers.

Soft colored pencil illustrations bring to life the personal stories of these women who fought for workers' rights; lovely and solid and vital and true.

A great retelling of true events. Learning and seeing the lives of the Radium Girls in beautiful graphic novel illustrations. It can help spark a readers interest to further explore what happened to these women and the events that weren't touched on in this novel.

I knew the basic story behind the Radium Girls, which this story tells, by getting to know the girls that will meet a most tragic end.

The novel establishes how the women didn't know that ingesting radium would eventually kill them. That they would lose their teeth, and their lives. The owners of the watch company that had them paid their watches, knew, but figured that it wouldn't catch up with them, and what did it matter, because they could just wait the women out, if they tried to sue.

Which is what happened. They couldn't get the justice they wanted, because the courts were too slow.

But just as The Jungle inspired the FDA, apparently this inspired OSHA, to protect workers from dangerous work places.

The only problem is that we only find this out in the end of the book. The book is top heavy trying to get us to sympathize with the women, show their antics when they glowed. But it is only the last bit, the last few pages where they end up suing, and it is the afterward that talks about OSHA.

So, this didn't quite work for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Edelweiss for making this book available for an honest review.

Such a heart wrenching book. I have just recently heard of the Radium Girls and saw a movie that was put out. Seeing it in graphic novel form made it so much more real. Seeing what the radium did to them and how the system let them down. Thankfully workers rights have come a long way but there still is work to do

A short take on a much larger story. Overall I felt this telling of who the Radium Girls were and what happened to them was a bit too shallow. Most of the first half lacked a lot of substance in a story that has been told more richly in print format to the point where I did not end up finishing the book. The most compelling part of the book was the use of color, especially the frequent use of the radium green.