Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

139 reviews

caitlinreadsforvibes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

This story is told in 3 parts, the first part is very information forward and reads like a college paper with little emotional draw and very repetitive information because there are so many women who were affected. The 2nd part is where the story picks up and starts to be more of a narrative of what happened. For this reason this book really is an extraordinary recounting of what happened and the neglagence that these women faced. Highly recommend this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

This almost felt like reading a horror novel, it was absolutely harrowing. I thought this was very propulsive and I loved that this was mostly told from the direct perspectives of the women and families involved. Sometimes the writing felt a bit cheesy and repetitive, but on the whole I couldn’t put this book down. The descriptions of each woman’s slow and painful deaths were sometimes a bit much but did capture just how bonkers it is that these people were literally dissolving and somehow these corporations were still able to wriggle out of responsibility. Absolutely maddening, describing how profit and capitalism will always take precedence over the wellbeing of workers, clearly showing how labor rights are disability rights and vice versa. If you want to be equally upset and informed, this is the book for you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Sexism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

badger_ti_robespierre's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Should be required reading 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

lovetlr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Really enjoyed the human element of the radium girls

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

bmpicc's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

Do not read if you have dental anxiety! I remember people talking about radium and the shining women. I don't remember anyone discussing their teeth, jaws, shattering bones, and unnecessarily early deaths. This was an incredible story.

Like Moore's book 'The Woman They Could Not Silence', I appreciate learning at the end the laws added to the books, the why behind her decision to write the book, etc. I'll be following this up with the graphic novel.

"You fight and you fall and you get up and fight some more. But there will always come a day when you cannot fight another minute more.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, and Miscarriage

mostlybees's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Cancer

kafarm6's review against another edition

challenging informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

It was just so gross 🫠
But I do love learning how a) all arguments we hear today are old af b) every bad event in history ever has had at least one person saying “this is bad you should stop”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

reg_litbytes's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

 

 TLDR: An emotional take on true historical events focusing on the humanity of the victims while still being informative. Leans a bit into the fictional. Went on a little too long and felt repetitive. I zoned out a few times.

TRIGGER WARNING: Graphic descriptions of disease
 
 THE GOOD: I truly appreciate what the author is doing in this book - focusing on giving life to the women who suffered. The stories were laid out in a way that I felt how the suffering of each were all interconnected. I could feel the hopefulness, the grief, the helplessness, and the triumph of each victim that were given the spotlight. Lives and futures were ruined and I found myself getting mad and frustrated along with the victims. I wish I could look at pictures of each of them as they were being described - before and after the exposure. The goal of the author was to humanize the victims in contrast to how the other books covering the same topic has done - more scientific. So do take note that if you intend on reading this, it can often lean into the fictional. It does this by filling in some details that the author is unlikely to have known (ex. what the victims have been thinking and feeling apart from what they themselves have written). 

THE BAD:
It went on too long that I found myself, at times, zoning out. The epilogue was proof enough that this didn't have to be as long as it is. Or maybe… it was meant more to be read on print than on audiobook? It got repetitive but understandably so because the victims all went through, more or less, the same horrors. Unfortunately, halfway through, I just couldn't wait to find out how they were able to resolve the issues and the impact on society (which the epilogue was able to cover).
 
 THE NARRATION:
The narration was mostly fine but not something I would remember in the long term. I didn't feel comfortable speeding it up to more than 1.5x; but then again I don't usually speed up audiobooks.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, and Grief

leligavi's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.25

This was my first nonfiction I've read of my own accord. Not for school or required reading, just because I wanted to know the story. I'm so grateful I read it. The impact that these women, lawyers, and doctors all contributed to this world is just amazing. Their tenacity is admirable and above all, I could just see the Lord bringing justice to these girls and giving them the strength to continue on. He led them to people that fought for them and for the truth and that is just so powerful. What wonderful faith and strength these girls exhibited and I hope to be just a fraction of what they were. Such a powerful read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

gummybearlife's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Medical content