Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

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

93 reviews

jshere's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.0

This book is a lot.
It’s long but only so that it can tell the point it’s trying to make: corporations care less for you than the government does. Corporations will fight for money until the bitter end. I have no doubt, if the USRC was still around, they would still be fighting the verdict from the fourties’ on Kathrine Donihue’s case. 
Other reviews will say the Illinois plant was an unnecessary side track and I understand that thought. But it’s not until you reach the post script that you learn that plant operated well into the seventies. Working with radioactive material and lying to their workers, most of whom were young women. 
I have a lot of feelings about this book. It’s visceral, disturbing, and a rude awakening. But it’s also a stunning tribute to the women who unwilling and unwittingly gave their lives to write our modern workers protections in their radioactive blood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

aech's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Infertility, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, and Classism

beeping_librarian's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.0

Clearly a lot of research. Grew more interesting as the book transitioned away from introducing a huge number of "characters" and into describing the medical and legal battles. 

Didn't like the tendency to make up situations and real people's thoughts for the sake of painting a picture. Also had a weird focus on describing how attractive the women were -- and continuously calling them girls no matter how old they were. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Medical content, and Medical trauma

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

kelzcline's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

gisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad

5.0

This book tears your heart apart for these poor women while leaving you amazed by their bravery, and frustrates you to no end at the selfish, greedy people that will do anything for money. It's entirely one thing to hear about the radium girls in passing as you grow up, hearing only the surface of what they suffered in their short lives. It's another to read in detail the horrifying way these women's lives ended, and the way so many people knew and ignored the dangers they knew radium possesses. It's yet another terrifying example of what money and power can do to cause innocent people their lives, while others prosper and turn a blind eye. These women will be forever loved and adored for all they have done for others, as well as celebrated for their amazing fight for justice. Rest easy, girls.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness and Miscarriage

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

ms_sarah621's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely amazing book. Such a powerful and interesting story. I highly recommend this book and have nothing bad to say about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

boomwormbrittany's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

5.0

The Radium Girls follows the absolutely unbelievable story of the girls who were poisoned by the companies they worked for and their fight for justice.
This book is an absolutely heartbreaking and inspiring story about a group of women's fight to try to hold companies accountable for the poisoning that they suffered due to the companies lying to them about the harmful effects of radium. This book was an absolutely heartbreaking and wild ride to read.
Watching these women having to not only suffer to find a diagnosis and be misdiagnosed was already heartbreaking. But also watching them having to fight tooth and nail to just be able to get any sort of compensation and help from the companies was absolutely rage inducing. The way these companies lied about these women and their conditions and what they were suffering while they were sitting there, in pain and dying, was absolutely mind blowing.
This book is such an important book to read because it's not just about the women's pain. It's about their resilience and how they worked together despite the odds to try to do right by others who would suffer like them.
I think this is a very important book to read and it should be read by everyone. The way Kate Moore handled this was so deft and well done. She showed so much respect and care for these women and their stories. I teared up in her descriptions and she showed their courage so well. I cannot recommend this book enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Miscarriage

likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Miscarriage, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail