Outstanding and well researched book

This story moved me to tears on many occasions. Outstandingly read by the author with feeling. The plight of these girls should never be forgotten.

15 people found this helpful

Brilliant reading but sync problems exist

Kate Moore reads the true story of the Radium Girls with commitment and passion. The voices of the girls comes through vividly. Kate felt that while there have been some excellent studies of the radium dial scandal the voices of the victims had somehow been lost. Thus her book puts an emphasis on those tragic young women and she did considerable research with their families as well as having access to the memoir of Katherine Schaub written as her too short life drew to a close. This is why Kate was able to so vividly describe Katherine’s first encounters with the Radium Dial Company. The crucial lesson of the terrible events is that the greed and lies of the radium dial companies dehumanised the girls, violated their rights, and caused horrible suffering not only to the women but to those who loved them. In so doing these company officials dehumanised themselves as well.

My one problem and the reason I don’t give this five stars lies in the problem that arises from the synchronisation of the Kindle text and The Audible narration. Frequently the last part of the text will stop syncing near the end of a chapters and a message will come up that states that no sync is available. The syncing will begin again at or near the start of the next chapter. It is quite irritating. This,effect occurs quite often. More seriously occasionally Kate will suddenly narrate from a different—usually longer—text than that which appears in the Kindle book. Chapter 36 has an example of this.

I would hope that Audible will fix this difficulty.

24 people found this helpful

harrowing

Yes I was in tears several times. The way the legal system was perverted and the sheer shameless lies beggars belief. This story is about a company who knew they were killing their staff in the most agonizing way and reneged on negotiated settlements whilst continuing hiring young women and making millions whilst making the most pitifully small amounts of compensation, character assassination, misinformation to mention but a few. They probably paid their lawyers more than any compensation. The legal system, lawyers and the medical profession all are culpable not forgetting big business and the government. Not the finest hour in American history. From my own point of view, I was a union member and steward and proud of all those who paved the way for better working conditions.

4 people found this helpful

Powerful Story Irritating Narration

This is a truly shocking story - I found myself gasping in disbelief at some of the genuinely jaw-dropping (pardon the expression) revelations - and it is its strength that kept me going to the end, in spite of the awful narration.

I can’t profess to be a fan of Kate Moore’s style of writing and. Certainly. Not. Of. Her. Strange. Staccato. Delivery. Terrible, theatrical, over-dramatised narration, which the story does not need; it is dramatic enough on its own (and how does a 30-something woman manage to sound like a 13-year old girl anyway?) I ashoom (sic) she was reading it how she was imagining it when she wrote it.

Some of her pronunciation would have been risible if it weren’t so irritating: ashooming, conshoomer, clappsed, clective, diptheria, becuzz, prehaps… (I could go on.) And while I understand that it was necessary to demonstrate that these were young, vibrant, attractive, fashionable women (I kept having to remind myself they were only in their early 20s) was it really necessary to be told of the physical attributes of (virtually) every person in the book? Was it relevant if a doctor had a bald head and glasses? I don’t think so. I found it really grating on me by about halfway through.

That being said, the account is totally engrossing. The shameless machinations of the companies in trying to protect their reputations and, more importantly, their profits, were staggering! I was entirely unaware of the struggles of these women and of their part both in changing industrial safety regulations and in the greater knowledge of radioactivity and its effects. A powerful story that needed to be told, but probably not by Kate Moore.

3 people found this helpful

Utterly brilliant

One of the best researched and best told stories I've ever heard. Astounded by some of the facts and behaviours of the people in this story. Would highly recommend this book to anyone

1 person found this helpful

well written and narrated it stayed with me

It's a story of life lessons. Unfairness, values, struggle and never giving up. in equal parts it is inspirational, heart breaking and sad, and unwaveringly human. Enjoyed wouldn't describe it, but glad I found it would. Those women were heroic and glorious. A very good read.

1 person found this helpful

Intolerably irritating

I listened to 16 chapters, but could take no more of the jejune style, wrong choice of vocabulary (eg savings being desecrated instead of decimated) and over-expressive “storytelling” narration technique. I did think the work was very well researched, and presented with genuine passion and truly humane indignation - but I just didn’t enjoy it.

1 person found this helpful

Unbelievable courage!

This is an incredibly moving book - Kate Moore has given the girls and women of the Radium Scandal a voice. The suffering was unbelievable, the behaviour of the employers shameful and Kate reads this with a passionate performance.

Awful narration

The decision of having the author narrate is its biggest failure. She has the most bizarre habit of punctuating. Each. Word. With. A. Full. Stop. After 59 chapters it drove me to the point of despising her voice! She seemed almost conscious to pronounce each word singularly and perfectly, as you might if just reading a list of words from the dictionary. Ironically, she mispronounced words in every chapter, and it was easy to spot due to her weird rhythm. The use of repetition is painful and cringe-worthy in parts. The author did not decide clearly whether she was writing a factual account of matters, or a romanticised fictional novel. The result is a book jumping from one genre and tense to the next; from describing what the characters ARE doing then bringing in snippets of memoirs and reflections, fast forwarded in time. She included fabricated present tense speech, thoughts and feelings alongside retrospective factual accounts. This need not have been half as long as it was. Her painfully uninspiring descriptions of people droned on and on for each individual. I felt she had a list of how to say 'she later said' in different ways, and picked them at random to try and get some variation in her writing. I'd simply wish I'd googled this interesting subject matter, rather than waste my time on this terrible piece of writing and narration.

I had no idea

I had no idea the struggle these girls endured. thank you for writing this well written book! truly inspiring