The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie posits a world in which the teenage Marie Curie, née Skłodowska, uses her scientific knowledge to protect family and friends from threats ranging from murderers to the supernatural. While a few of the stories stray from the concept (either by not including a science-based solution to the problem, or by having the title character do something downright villainous), most fit the bill.
Marya Skłodowska grew up in Warsaw, which was then under Russian dominion. Girls were only allowed to attend school to a certain age, and Poles were treated by the Russians as second-class citizens in their own city. When laboratory instruction in the sciences was removed from the curricula for Polish students, Marya and some of her peers attended a “flying university” that changed locations to avoid Russian detection. Most of the stories take place during the time Marya and her friends were students at a regular “gymnasia” (school) for Polish girls, but a few take place during the “flying university” years, and at least one during the year Marya spent living with relatives in the Polish countryside. Only one (“The Beast” by Stacia Deutsch) features an adult Marie Curie and is a neat twist on the typical time-travel story.

The volume opens with “Uncrowned Kings” by Seanan McGuire, who herself knows more than just a little bit about using hard science in science fiction and horror. After the death of her eldest sister by typhus, Marya stops believing in God and starts trusting in science. When something that seems like typhus rears its ugly head six years later but only affecting children and teens including another of her sisters, Marya follows the evidence to find the true source of this latest scourge: a mythical rat-king in the sewers. McGuire’s tale sets the tone of the book perfectly: showcasing Marya’s determination to not let others fall victim to preventable disease, her curiosity about the scientific underpinnings of the universe, her devotion to family and friends, all ensconced in a story that includes some fantastical element. “The Cold White Ones” by Susanne L. Lambdin also uses the return of typhus to Warsaw as a launching point but with a different supernatural problem at the core.

Marya’s grief and anger over the untimely deaths of her mother and eldest sister, Zofia, are palpable in many of the stories, not just McGuire’s. Sometimes the emotions spur the action, sometimes the action helps Marya process her grief – I’m thinking particularly here of Alethea Kontis’ beautiful “Marya’s Monster,” in which Marya returns from a St. Andrew’s Day birthday party to encounter a wolf-like monster under her bed. I don’t want to say too much more about how the story progresses, except that it is a stunning look at how we process grief and loss.

Other favorites in the anthology that feature a supernatural menace of some sort as Mylo Cabria’s “Three Ravens,” Scott Sigler’s “A Glow in the Dark,” and Jonathan Maberry’s “The Night Flyers,” which closes on the book on as solid a note as McGuire’s story opened it, focusing as it does on the other bane of Marya’s existence: the Russian overlords controlling Warsaw. The story is especially affecting as in 2023 we watch Russia’s continued war on Ukraine.

Not every story features a supernatural element. In “The Magic of Science,” co-editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt teams with author G.P. Charles to give us a wonderful “cozy mystery:” a girl in Marya’s dorm wakes up to discover her skin has turned blue. Later that day, a cook at the school dies. Supernatural explanations are put forward by her fellow students, but Marya is sure there is a rational scientific explanation. There is, and the path to it is well-developed, a very “fair play” kind of mystery. Steve Pantazis’ “The Prize” also seems to lack, or at least downplays, a supernatural element, pitting Marya and a rival classmate against the impending death of the classmate’s father by metal poisoning.

Many of the stories are followed with an explanation of the science that underpins the story, which I think enhances the book’s ability to interest young readers in the sciences and encourage them, especially young girls, to pursue STEM studies.

I received an electronic advance review copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie was published on April 11, 2023.

This seemed like a lot to read, but with it being an anthology, it was easier to break down the different stories and take it in in smaller chunks.

An anthology that puts the science in science fiction, The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie brings together 20 stories by standout names - Jane Yolen, Scott Sigler, and Jonathan Maberry, to name a few - who spin dark stories about Nobel Prize winning physicist Marie Curie. Driven largely by the childhood losses of her mother and sister, the stories and poetry in Hitherto dream of scenarios that formed Curie. Set in her young adolescence, there are dark tales, supernatural tales, and straight-up unnerving tales, with several mainstays: Curie's break with religion, the Russian occupation of her beloved Poland, and her dedication to science and learning. Stories are rooted in science, and many include Science Notes to clarify the divergence of fact and fiction. Run from the whimsical, like Alethea Kontis's "Marya's Monster", where Curie confronts the literal monster under her bed with level-headedness, to the bittersweet, as with Seanan McGuire's "Uncrowned Kings", where Curie battles the disease-carrying beast that's infected her town. Stories like Henry Herz's "Cheating Death" take a turn into horror, where Curie's obsession with halting Death leads her to disturbing experimentation, and Christine Taylor-Butler's "Retribution" is a science murder mystery (minus the mystery). 

Every single story here is an excellent read, with something for dark fantasy, horror, and thriller fans alike. Science fans will rejoice at having Marie Curie front and center in her own adventures (I know I did), and resources for further reading keeps the momentum going, with books about Curie, women in STEM, and websites to explore. An excellent choice for YA collections.

I received an advanced reader’s copy from net galley in exchange for my honest review
Marie Curie is such a fascinating woman. I think that what you learn in school doesn’t do her justice. I was excited to read a collection of short stories about her and I was not disappointed! It was made even better because my search initially was for books by Jane Yolen (of whom I’m a big fan)- but that brought me to the collection of stories about someone else I enjoy reading about.
I think my favorite of the the stories (not poems ) was the Beast (by stacia Deutsch) which was a little bit time travel and little bit Frankenstein , and it was really good

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC of this!

This was such an interesting fantastical allohistory about Marie Curie. While she is very famous, I didn’t actually know much about her. These short stories and poems, while full of monsters and scenarios that the real scientist never faced, made me more interested to learn about what she did do in her real life. They were lightly creepy without being scary, and I had a fun time reading them.

Most of us know Marie Curie's achievements as an adult, but imagine what she could have done in today's sceintific community as a teen. This educational, entertaining fictional book of short stories does exactly that. Taken in small bites or read all in one day, this book will make you think. Be sure to share with the young scientists in your family.

I really wanted to love this as I found Marie Curie very interesting but I'm not sure what happened but I just couldn't get into this book. It didn't matter which story I read or who wrote it. I will try to revisit this book later in hopes it was just me.

A great collection of stories and poems about a fantastic female scientist. This would be an excellent book to use for guided reading with middle school to high school aged children. The stories are a little repetitive but it would be a rich task to get students to compare multiple stories. It was so wonderful to read a collection that combines science, history and literacy so beautifully.

Thank you to the authors, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Average rating: 2,725 ⭐️

All-in-all a pretty niche story collection. And I feel like, because each author received the same prompt to work with (Marie Curie’s backstory) the stories became a bit repetitive. I think if the stories weren’t about a young Marie Curie as a character and instead about this young girl obsessed with science, it might have created more freedom for the authors in creating a character and it might have made for a more fun experience reading this collection of short stories.

The stories/poems and what I thought of them as I read them:

Dark Lady, Salomea by Jane Yolen - 2 stars

Uncrowned Kings by Seanan McGuire - 4 stars
McGuire’s writing is impeccable as always

Marya’s Monster by Alethea Kontis - 2,5 stars
Liked the element of depression, but the entire story was a bit too on the nose (and a little bit boring)

Shards of Me by Lissa Price - 1,5 stars
Weird and a bit stupid, writing wasn’t on par with the other stories so far

Fight or Flight by Jo Whittemore - 2,5 stars
Liked the mystery/deduction elements of this story, but again, the fact that this is supposedly starring Marie Curie in her younger years doesn’t really add anything to the story itself…

Three Ravens by Mylo Garbia - 2 stars
Again, there’s so much focus on the same aspects/prompt. It feels like I’m just reading a story of an inquisitive young girl, with the same backstory over and over again. This story was kind of boring.

The Magic of Science by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & G. P. Charles - 2,5 stars
A little murder mystery, but too short to be really impressed by it. Again the MC “being” Curie didn’t really play a part in it

Horse Cart by Jane Yolen - 2 stars
Poem doesn’t really ring a bell or do anything for me. A bit horrendous.

A Glow In the Dark by Scott Siegler - 4 stars
I actually really liked this one. Came across it just as I was giving up hope for this anthology. It took a different approach to the other stories and I liked the writing of this short and spooky story.

Retribution by Christine Taylor-Butler - 3 stars
This was okay, I liked it. A bit more suspense, but quite a stupid experiment.

The Cold White Ones by Susanne L. Lambdin - 2.5 stars
Again, pretty forgettable, but not necessarily bad?

Cheating Death by Henry Herz - 1 star
Thanks, I hated it. While I love a story about a woman getting revenge, the writing and the use of first person pov were just not it. How was this written from the perspective of a teen girl? It wasn’t.

A Shard of Sunlit Shadow by Emily McCosh - 2,5 stars
This one was okay. Again, repetitive in this collection, but okay.

She Walks Between Heaven and Hell by Jane Yolen - 3 stars
I felt more with this poem than the others, but it was still a bit too much on the nose. Still a weird subject to write a poem about though.

Silence Them by Dee Leone - 2 stars
Pretty depressing and I feel like the real story might have been more interesting.

Experiments With Fire by Sarah Beth Durst - 2,5 stars
This was an okay story. I wasn’t fully expecting the ghost of a dead sister and a dragon, but it wasn’t a bad story.

The Prize by Steve Pantazis - 3 stars
A different approach, where Marya isn’t the mc. I think the writing could be improved upon, but I liked the story.

The Beast by Stacia Deutsch - 2 stars
Hmm. Too Frankenstein-ey. Also, not really a fan of time travel stories, so that doesn’t help.

The Night Flyers by Jonathan Mayberry - 3,5 stars
I liked this one. I loved what it had to say about knowledge and the oppression of women.

Marya’s Precious Pill by Jane Yolen - 1,5 stars
I feel like this one would make more sense if I knew something about Marie Curie that I don’t. So yeah, this poem doesn’t really have any impact on me.

I will admit that I have never given much thought to Marie Curie’s life. Her work? Of course. Her young life? Not once. This is a collection of fictional stories of her early life interspersed with true facts about her life. So, imagine the early life of a ground breaking scientist and woman while she deals with the traumatic deaths in her family and the Russian occupation of her homeland.

Most of the stories seem to focus on the death of her older sister which was blamed on a sick border. Of these, I particularly enjoyed the first, Uncrowned Kings by Seanan McGuire. Love seeing a young Marie Curie tell off the priest who blames her mother for the death. She gives up on the misogynistic church and relies on herself. And of course, there is a monster. There are a few monsters. Some mythical. Some human. Some more interesting than others. It is often that an author takes on Marie’s early life and her love of science to help her regain the power she lost when disease took her sister or her mother. I really began to cheer on the young Marie.

My favorite story, by far, is the other bookend to this….book. The Nightflyer by Jonathan Maberry takes on the politics of the time and throws in some feminism just to sweeten the deal. The political climate of Russia’s occupation of Poland is the backdrop. There is a subtle rebellion, forbidden knowledge, The dangers of educating girls is the real focus. The claiming of women’s knowledge while minimizing their roles-“hysterical” “old wive’s tales”. In the end, the author uses the Russian treatment of the Polish people with the treatment of women in general at the time. I found it the perfect ending.

I'm not sure that I've read anything wrote like this, but I loved every second of it. Marie Curie is a rare scientific heroine that even people unfamiliar with the field of study have heard of her. She's become somewhat of a legend, so by injecting fantastical or fictional elements into her story, we are treated to another layer to her mythos. From a variety of authors came this collection, each piece of which fits perfectly.

An interesting premise upon which to start a series of short stories, I was intrigued from the start. I dipped in and out of these stories for a couple of weeks (when I had little time to read a novel) and thoroughly enjoyed the science based tales.

This is quite an interesting book. I truly appreciate the authors being up front and letting readers know that this book is more about honoring Marie Curie and all that she became then, focusing on telling a true retelling of her life. I will be honest I enjoyed some stories over others. Some of them were to out there for me. But that is to be expected. Overall, this was an interesting read. Though I am not quite sure what type of patron I would recommend this book too, but it might be good to have in my arsenal.
Thank you so much to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I’m a big fan of Marie Curie and her lire/life’s work. This book was exciting to me. Such a fun concept. I loved Jane Yolen’s poetry throughout that sort of linked things together. I’d definitely read other collections like this.

Book Summary:

Marie Curie is, to say the least, an incredibly famous scientist. She changed our lives thanks to her discoveries. But what would have happened if Marie Curie had set her sights on other discoveries?

That is the question The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie seeks to answer. This anthology collects stories from a dozen different authors, all exploring this unique concept in their own way. Authors include Seanan McGuire, Stacia Deutsch, Sarah Beth Durst, Jane Yolen, Aletha Kontis, Scott Sigler, Lissa Price, Jonathan Maberry, Christine Taylor-Butler, Jo Whittemore, Mylo Carbia, G.P. Charles, Susanne L. Lambdin, Emily McCosh, Dee Leone, and Steve Pantazis.

My Review:

As far as food for thought goes, The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie is an incredibly compelling read. This anthology has a strong fractured fairytale vibe, so readers who enjoy this concept should check it out.

In a way, I almost wish it had been about a fictional character, as it does feel odd for such fictional stories to be based on a real person. I don't know; maybe that's just me. You'll have to make up your mind on that point before diving in.

Before readers dive into the fictional stories, there is an excellent forward that helps ensure readers know all the wonderful research Marie Curie did. It explores her real life a little bit further, which helps to distance fact from fiction.

Highlights:
Marie Curie
Historical Fiction
Different Possibilities/Timelines
Anthology

Trigger Warnings:
Family Death

I was intrigued by the premise of this short story collection. I don't know as much about Marie Curie as I would like, and I enjoy the idea of using fiction to explore gaps or less documented aspects of her biography. I'm not sure that I am the right audience for this collection—I was less interested in the different fantastical and folkloric stories. Although the individual stories are fantastic on their own, I didn't feel that they were cohesive as a collection. I wonder if the scope of the collection was too narrowly defined. Because the stories focus on Curie's girlhood, there was an overlap in concepts, themes, and key biographical events. Many of the stories shared similar settings, which made them feel repetitive but also disjointed. I kept carrying ideas from the preceding story into the next one I started, which made for a confusing reading experience. Individual stories would work very well in an educational setting for discussions on women's history, feminism, and women in STEM. Perhaps if the collection were arranged differently or with a broader scope, it would have read better as a whole.

I know the authors meant well, but this book felt disrespectful to use Marie Curie’s name to write fairytales. This book has snippets of science but largely has what seems like folk, light horror, and magic stories. This book wasn’t specific to Marie Currie, and could’ve had any young woman added into these stories. They didn’t flow together and were just far fetched. The amount of afterwords that stated “this isn’t true” just made me more upset that Marie Currie’s name was used. Stories of a mystery man having a body in their icebox, a monster under the bed, and Marie solving murder? I hope this stays digital so it won’t waste the paper it would be printed on. The one star is simply because the writing wasn’t bad, the stories just were. 1⭐️, 0🌶

This book is quite fun! Definitely a younger YA vibe with plenty of fascinating short stories. The poetry interspersed was absolutely wonderful. I'm not sure if the prompt was kind of narrow but the stories began to feel repetitive. Much of the history and background at the start of the story was great to settle in.

The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie was not what I expected and ultimately, not for me. I wouldn’t categorized these stories as being in the genre of horror. They were more closely aligned with science fiction.
I did not enjoy how they were so sporadic yet related. Most of the stories had very slow, drawn out beginnings with random, quickly thrown together endings.
It took me forever to get through this book so luckily it was an anthology. Overall, I would not recommend this book.

Thank you Netgalley and to Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Since these stories were mostly speculative, it might have been a better idea to make this a collection about young female scientists in general, instead of narrowing it down to a collection about Marie Curie only. Specifically the stories at the beginning were really repetitive and couldn't grab my attention.
Additionally, I felt like some of these stories did Marie Curie a disservice, as she was partially presented to be very arrogant and "not like other girls". Since this was supposed to be a book that would teach young girls about Marie Curie and inspire them to follow their dreams, potentially of working in STEM, I wish these stories would have been cut from the collection. Women simply don't have to be "better" than other women to make it far in the world of men, specifically in the 21st century. And I believe that a short story collection for teenage girls shouldn't include stories that say things like: "typical girls played with dolls. But I was not a typical girl." Because, you know, you can like dolls and science, actually.