A review by louisejulig
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, it tells the intertwined stories of Iversen’s family and the nearby plant most residents thought manufactured cleaning supplies, but in fact was a factory for plutonium “triggers” for nuclear bombs. The author shows the long shadows the twin secrets her father’s alcoholism and the Rocky Flats weapons plant cast over both her family life and the community of this Denver suburb. Superbly written and thoroughly researched, it is a page-turner and a powerhouse of a book.