It took me a while to start reading this book because I had an inkling of what I was in for emotionally, but once I did I couldn't put it down. It was a difficult read for me because these women were duped. Ironically getting a job as a "radium girl" was considered a step up from other factory jobs. The fact that these women...girls actually were slowly poisoned and deceived by their employers was so disgraceful I was quite angry. Nevertheless, they persisted. I found this book sad, inspiring, courageous and altogether a very satisfying read. Thank you for the opportunity.

I can't stress enough how grateful I am - how grateful we all should be - to these brave women, their families and their lawyers. Moore provides a well-written, well researched account of their struggles, their setbacks, their optimism and ultimately their legacy. It's ironic that such a readable book recounts such a horrible, horrible part of our history.

This is an amazing story of courage and strength in the face of corporate greed and negligence. Teenagers and young women were hired to paint watch face numbers with radium paint so that the watches would glow in the dark. When they began to become ill, they were lied to and fired because of their disabilities. Their suffering is almost unimaginable. Yet they persevered and are responsible for many of the protections to which workers are now entitled.

These women, in all their considerable glory, are chronicled and brought to life in this book. Their letters and journals show clearly the determination with which they refused to let themselves be ignored and discarded. It is a powerful book.

I have been weirdly dreading reviewing this book and I'm not sure why because it was a fantastic book that I would highly recommend to anyone; but especially to people interested in women's health and women's labor throughout the the years.

To say this book was hard to read is an understatement.
The first time I got to a grisly scene, where a Radium Girl's jaw rotted and emerged from the gums in her mouth, I was so excited; like yes! I love this kind of weird shit.

Just as quickly as that excitement came, it left and was replaced with a sinking feeling, because holy shit, this is someone's real life, not some dystopian work of science fiction that I am used to reading.

As I continued reading this book, it was very sobering to see how little value were placed on female workers -- which is weird, because as a self proclaimed Super Feminist, this is not really news to me; but it was still really hard to read.

I was continually impressed with Moore's ability to tell such a tragic and horrifying story in such a breathtakingly beautiful way, and found myself up reading into to dead of night, knowing the fate of these ladies but hoping for the best.

I truly believe that Moore has created a beautiful thing out of something so tragic, and has provided the world with a brilliant text that looks into our not so distance past, and acts as a resource to ensure a brighter future.

Final rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Seriously. You need to read this...

This was absolutely fascinating! Fans of Erik Larson will love Kate Moore. Can't wait to read more of her!

Four Stars Review. The book is recommended for anyone interested in history in the style of storytelling. It reviews a significant amount of personal and legal accounts associated with this story. Story is relevant and perfect for those who follow workers' and women's rights history.

“Lip-dip-paint” I cringe every time I see these words in this novel. The year is 1917, the girls are headed off to the studio in New Jersey, where they will work painting dial numerals and hands with a luminous material that is making the news. This material is fantastic for it can be used as medicine, for housecleaning, just about anything, for they claim that radium makes everything better. These girls love working at the studio, making great money and being social at the same time. The hairs on the brushes they use to paint these delicate dials spread out, so the girls dab the brushes in their mouths to get the hairs to come together as they apply the paint. This procedure creates less mistakes and since they are paid per time piece, the girls are able to get more pieces completed thence more money in their paychecks. This method becomes known as lip-pointing and soon even the new hires are trained in the technique. The girls mix their own paint but powder coats everything in the studio.

A new studio in Illinois is opened in 1922, this is a different company but the same technique is taught to the girls who are being hired. The owner of this company encourages the girls to decorate with the radium, unlike the studio in New Jersey. I am floored as the girls begin applying the radium like makeup on their faces and then apply some to their clothing. At night, these girls light up the night and are the envy of others.

It begins too quickly as the girls in New Jersey start to experience medical issues. Dental problems and medical complications that no one can explain. Radium is new on the market so nothing can be linked to it and the girls are each seeing different doctors so the communication is lost between these professionals. I am lost for words as these girls suffer and boy, do they suffer. The great money they were making does not suffice for what they are going through and it chilled me as I read their stories. Their bodies failing them, the medical professionals grasping for anything and the girls trying to hang on, some of them still trying to work to pay for the bills that were mounting. As they got closer to the culprit, thinking that radium might be the link, the companies began doing their own song and dance for radium is their money maker. Meanwhile in Illinois, it is business as usual. They have not heard the news from New Jersey, the girls are working and enjoying their cash crop of radium, for life is good. The anticipation was killing me as I wondered just how long it would take for these girls to understand what was happening. This novel tells the whole story and it is shocking to know that this really occurred. I could tell that a lot of research has gone into it this novel and I enjoyed the two different stories, the time differences between these two studios created an edginess to the novel. It was an emotional read for me, the horrific ordeal that the girls endured and reports/investigations were the most troubling for me. I highly recommend this novel, it was very insightful.

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley and Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting though sometimes emotionally difficult book to read because the girls in this story went through so much serious physical pain and torment at such young ages. The book really was enlightening and gave tremendous insight into the time period that the book was written. You definitely empathize with the characters in this book. Knowing what we know now about radium it makes the book have an even more shocking impact. I received this book free via Netgalley for an honest review.

If you liked Henrietta Lacks, this is the book for you. It is one of those stories that shocks, inspires, and mesmerizes a reader throughout the entire unfolding of a piece of history that cried for a voice. A new industry began as the first world war was born, a company which made clocks with dials that lit up at night due to the radium-laced paint used to paint the numbers. These dial-painters were all young women, drawn to the job by lucrative pay and the hyped up idea that radium was good for them, that it gave them rosy cheeks and healthy blood. This was a common, highly publicized belief in America, with tinctures and tonics marketed with the expensive radium chemical additive. However, within a few years, the insidious march of radiation poisoning decimated the ranks of these shining girls, who glowed at night, developed anemia and sarcomas, and suffered immeasurable pain thanks to the "Lick, Dip, Paint" regimine. The book follows the lives of some incredibly heroic women and their fight for justice and reparations. Just when you think the story is over, hang on...the company finds another way to screw them over. This was a fascinating look back at how OSHA was created, the rise of labor laws, and the heroes who gave up everything, including their lives, to make sure that others did not suffer the same fate as they did. Absolutely loved the book!

Let me start by saying I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. I can't remember the last time I was so moved by a book, I found myself on an emotional roller coaster of pity, anger and frustration as I read the incredibly moving account of these women and their struggle for justice.
The eponymous Radium Girls are the girls, some as young as 14 , and women who worked with radium based paint in a number of different factories, from before the first World War. Initially unaware of the dangers of the material they were handling, the use of unsafe practices was not only tolerated but actively encouraged by the company bosses as it increased productivity and reduced wastage of a valuable and expensive raw material. However as time went on the women began to develop a range of strange and puzzling conditions, ranging from dental problems to issues with their joints, in some cases years after they had stopped working in these factories.
As the list of sick and dying women got longer, the companies involved went to ever greater lengths to conceal their involvement and publicly and privately denied that the materials they used were hazardous. Decades of legal arguments, verdicts and appeals took place, while the women continued to suffer horrifically, losing not just teeth but parts of their jaw, developing severe anaemia and tumors that even resulted in amputation. Kate Moore takes us every step of that journey with these women, and ensures that anyone who reads this book will never forget them or their determination in the face of so much suffering, while also shining a light on the appalling work practices that were allowed to continue for far too long, as testified by the final chapter of the book, which had me gasping in disbelief.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, its a book that deserves all the attention it can possibly garner.

This is my favorite so far this year! To want and need a job so badly, and pay for it with your life! These ladies changed the job world. Many safety practices in place today would never have existed without the courage of these women. If you love history and like a success story, this is one that I know many know nothing about and have never heard of!

Nice sample, it held my interest and is a book I would buy.

Kate Moore carefully documents many of the of dial workers' stories who worked in Orange, NJ and Ottawa, IL. In doing so, she preserves an important part of women's history, industrial history, and American history.

Lured by the glamour and high pay, these girls enjoyed their jobs until, one by one, they began getting sick. No laws protected workers from the occupational hazards of radium at this time.

Moore makes much of the fact that these women were unwitting pioneers who paved the way for safer conditions in all workplaces.
Undark (Radium Girls) advertisement, 1921
The product these women worked with, a radium paste, was called Undark. In the twenties, when glowing watch dials for the military were in hot demand, not much was known about the dangers of working with radium.

By the late 1920's, the companies knew radium was harmful but still did nothing to protect its dial workers who lip-pointed. They would put the radium-tainted brush directly into their mouths to give the brush a point. This practice was encourage for quick production of the dials.

Radium's effects were devastating. Some women died quickly but some suffered a slow and painful death.

Some of these women, notably Catherine Donohue, fought courageously to win a lawsuit against the companies that employed them. Though the payouts were small, they changes working conditions for future employees.

The dial worker's cases led to the formation of OSHA. They also continued to help scientists by participating in tests at Argonne Laboratory.

Though other works on this topic focus on the physicians and scientists, Moore's work puts a human face to this tragedy by focusing on the women themselves.

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I found this to be an enjoyable read about a very difficult topic. I had read The Poisoner's Handbook a few years ago and the Radium Girls had an entire chapter devoted to them, however, this was an entire book about the work and fight of these women. The outright lies and legal wrangling that the Radium company that employed these women engaged in to attempt to not take responsibility for their actions of literally poisoning them to death for the sake of profit is a lesson that is well to be remembered by all people.

To say this is a powerful book hardly does it justice. Kate Moore combines the wide variety of topics that tell the story, making it fast-paced and effortlessly readable. The only reason I found it hard to read was because it made me alternately angry, upset, and sad. I have never read another book that exemplified the hashtag #neverthelessshepersisted more precisely.

Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. It was considered a miracle cure-all at the time, and was widely used in all kinds of tonics and treatments. The scientist who co-founded the first company selling luminous radium-painted dials said of it, “What radium means to us today is a great romance in itself. But what it may mean to us tomorrow, no man can foretell.” He had no idea just how much it would mean to the people (mostly women in their late teens and early twenties) who worked to make the company a success.

If you enjoy reading a book about mystery medical diagnosis and treatment, while getting to know the patient, this book is for you. Each "radium girl" has a different experience with her failing health, which makes it that much more fascinating.

If you enjoy a good legal procedural story - true or fictional - this one is for you. The story of the Girls' legal battles is so hard to believe, you'd think it was fiction. But it's not.

If you enjoy a book that champions the underdog, this one is for you. These young women were told many times that radium was completely safe, and it was far from that. With a half-life of 1,600 years, it will be here long after we all have gone. No matter what the corporations who profited from it said at the time.

Reading about poisons and chemicals has made me question everything I put on my face, my hair, and my body. Not to mention the food I eat. Understanding toxicity isn't a story from the past, but a continued concern for today and the future.

I read this book as a digital ARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks, but I'm definitely buying a finished copy for my shelf.

They were called The Girls With Radioactive Bones. There were newspaper headlines such as ' Living Dead' Win In Court' about them. And all that – almost a hundred years ago.

I'm going to tell you a very painful, sad, but strong story of fighting for your rights, for justice, for your honor even. So let's start.

If there was ever a time that I wanted to believe the Christian hell with burning pits of fire, it would be when reading The Radium Girls. It's because you can sell anything. You can make people believe the worst poison is a cure. You can sell other people's lives. And in the process, sell your own soul. And that's what the burning hell is there for.

So if you still haven't heard what The Radium Girls is about, let it be my pleasure to enlighten you.

Back in the early 20th century, people didn't know a lot about radiation . Rather, they did, but they didn't have a habit of sharing information, like we do now. Which is why it was thought that radium, a highly radioactive substance, was in fact good for you. Because it sold well. Because any miracle cure always sells well.

So nobody even batted an eyelash when radium dial clock factories sprang up and started hiring young women to paint in their studios. Not wearing any protective suits. Putting the radium-covered brush straight into their mouths. Ingesting the radium. Like they were instructed. Because 'the radium is good for you'. It will put rosy cheeks on you.

It's not that they didn't bat an eyelash, really – they were actually even jealous of the girls, of their shining clothes and shining hair – as they returned from work. All covered in radioactive, glaring radium. Like a fairytale curse – enchanted pixie dust, that will bring you happiness, a fortune, that will make your position coveted and make every other girl jealous of your angelic glow. And yet, coming with a price akin to the fairytale one, where you have to give away your firstborn. Which was also what some of these girls pretty much did.

Unfortunately for them, back in the 1920's, the US government wasn't too keen about interfering with companies. So when they started dying horrible, torturous deaths one by one, dropping like flies, nobody intervened. They were called names. Liars. They were said to have died of sexually transmitted diseases. All the while suffering the worst kind of physical pain, because... the radium was literally in their bones. So much so, that decades, hundreds of years after we're all gone, the remains of these girls in their graves will still glow and emit radiation.

So this story is about how these poor, brave women fought for justice, for at least a little bit of honor in the end of their lives, and for the ones after them. For all of you. Because this is why you can now boast some safety in your jobs. This is why you are not forced to quit when you get sick. It's also why your bosses are not allowed to blatantly lie to you if they make you work with dangerous substances. And especially as women (if you, reader, are one), you have a lot to thank these girls for.

I could say so much about this story. In fact, I could quote the entire book. But that would kind of defeat the purpose of you reading it, wouldn't it? Which is what I must urge you to do, because you must know. You must know how much pain it took for our lives to be paved the way they are, to build up to this point. This is the least we can do for these girls – hear their story. Say a prayer for them. Remember them.

The women we meet in this book are all so exceptional, bright, warm, cheerful. The way some of them fight this incredibly crippling condition they're faced with was so inspiring. And heartbreaking, at the same time. This book doesn't read like like non-fiction, for starters! You will be drawn into the story instantly, you will even cry. Some of you – more than once. You will curse the people who did this to them, even though they knew what they were doing. You will be angry, maybe even furious. I don't see how anyone could remain a stone statue in the presence of something like this. I dare you.

But your heart will also swell with love. For the wonderful people who helped them. For the husbands and lovers of those young women who never threw them away, even when they were helpless shadows of their former selves, unable to move, to speak, to eat. You will bless the few lawyers and judges who weren't in it for the money, who fought for justice and for their own belief in the world. And most of all, your heart will swell with love for those young women who had no other option but to die, to die a graceful death, to die a proud death – because that's all that was left to them.

Precious materials are more precious than human life. Such is the tendency today as well. Maybe not in the Western world anymore. But in some places of the world it still is. In the beginning of this post, I said anything can be sold. This book will make you wonder what is being sold to you right now.

I am also deeply thankful to Kate Moore and Sourcebooks for giving me an advance copy of in exchange for my honest review. This was a bigger gift than you could imagine. This book was worth all my love and all my tears.

A fantastic science story that reads like fiction, even though it's horrifyingly true.

The incredible true story of the young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium and their brave struggle for justice...

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” were considered the luckiest alive—until they began to fall mysteriously ill. As the fatal poison of the radium took hold, they found themselves embroiled in one of America’s biggest scandals and a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights.

A rich, historical narrative written in a sparkling voice, The Radium Girls is the first book that fully explores the strength of extraordinary women in the face of almost impossible circumstances and the astonishing legacy they left behind. (via Goodreads)
I received an eARC from Netgalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks, in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing I fell in love with in The Radium Girls was the cover. It is beautiful, evocative and accurate.

The second thing I fell in love with was the author's note, which is a phrase I never thought I would say. Kate Moore is exactly the kind of person I would want telling my story, especially if my story were as rage-inducing and heartbreaking as the dial painters' story is.

I'd like to add some trigger warnings to this post, because this book was hard for me to read: death, body horror, cancer, gaslighting, tumors, broken bones, bones falling out of things, chronic pain, radiation.

The Radium Girls was told in a style called narrative nonfiction - it's nonfiction in its entirety, but told in a story-like format. I saw from several reviews that this writing style put readers off of it, and I can understand that. However, I thought that narrative nonfiction was truly the only way to tell this story and make it work to show who these girls were, in addition to what they went through.

Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.
There were more than 50 pages of endnotes in the ARC, all noting where information used throughout the book came from. Most of the information was from family recollections, saved letters and the girls' court testimony. Moore did reference the other two books that have been written about this topic, though.

Through their friendships, through their refusal to give up and through their sheer spirit, the radium girls left us all an extraordinary legacy. They did not die in vain.

They made every second count.
This was a four star read for me, because the narrative style took me a while to get into, but it probably deserves five stars. You can buy a copy of your own on Amazon, Indiebound or at your favorite bookseller!

Five stars

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.

historical-research, historical-places-events, pathology, greed

This book was a heartbreaking read. The clarity of descriptions of the destruction of their bodies and their lives gives testimony to the greed of the employers as well as the short sightedness of the purveyors who touted the health benefits of such products as radium water. And the girls themselves were unable to believe that having their clothes and bodies glow in the dark was anything but a bit of fun. I do wonder if anyone outside of the paramedical professions can see modern parallels.
The writing is absorbing and one keeps hoping that something will ease their suffering. But we know better. When they finally find legal support, they still have to fight hard and suffer more humiliation.
Their story needs to be remembered in its entirety, not only to grant them the dignity they were denied in life, but to serve as a warning to the future.
I was provided with a free ARC at my request courtesy of NetGalley.

This was a fair review of the materials about the radium girls, who worked in the dial face factory. I had heard about their story, but this treatment put faces to all the names of the women so drastically affected by their close contact with the radium in the glowing paint.