3.5 stars

If you want to learn about the radium girls then don't make this your first book. This is a fictitious story based on their lives. It's somewhat engaging although I did think it dragged out unnecessarily. I did come to like Helen and I liked the author's use of going back and forth between timelines. ( )

This story is historical fiction based on true events, of the girls who worked at the Radium Dial Company during the late 1900's and 1920's, who contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch and clock dials with paint containing radium. They were not told at the time that anything about the job was dangerous. In fact, they were encouraged to "kiss" the brush after dipping it into the paint to make a nice point on it in order to paint the numbers, and were told the paint was "harmless". It wasn't unusual either for girls to sneak some paint home and paint their lips and teeth "just for fun" to make them glow in the dark.

A group of women decided to sue the company after many of them begin contracting cancer (especially of the bones and jaw) and dying from the effects of ingesting the paint; their case was a landmark case in the history of workers rights.

In this book, we hear the fictionalized story of Helen; a 65 year old mental patient looking back on her life; she and her sister worked at the company when they were 16 and 18 years old. She remembers the painful deaths of her sister and other coworkers, and how at first, working at the Radium Dial Company was seen as a prestigious job, which paid much more than other factory work at the time.

This was a great story, and I really liked the character of Helen; she was authentic and I felt like I was reading about a real person, someone you wanted to root for. I wish though that the author went into more detail about the long term health effects of the radium on the workers, and how the factory came to be shut down. ( )

Radium Halos: A Novel about the Radium Dial Painters by Shelly Stout made me lay aside another book that I was reading at the same time. It was a strange reading experience for me, this is a page turner but I had trouble connecting with the main characters. I wanted to know what is going to happen next!

This is a fictional story of real situation in United States. Women really did paint numbers on the faces of clocks and watches with paint that had radium in it. Later, there were lawsuits won and the company had to pay damages.

In this book, the instructor told the trainees to actually put the brush in their mouths between their teeth to "kiss it" and get a better pointed tip for the painting. This part of this e-book is very chilling when you consider that they were practicing with poison!

They were evaluated on their skill levels and promoted from watches to clock faces if they were good enough.

The narrator, Helen was living in a mental institution at the opening of the story. She was only sixteen when she and her older sister decided to work for the Radium Dial Company. They got paid by the piece and the pay was much more than what they could ordinarily get.

Helen relates the effects of the radium exposure on herself, her sister Violet and other women who worked there. There is a side story that explains why Helen and her friends were afraid to talk to the investigators. That side story was vividly told and made sense as to why they didn’t complain about their physical problems which were many. The story has flashbacks to the past which are transitioned expertly.

So this is book worth reading but I don’t feel like I would reread it due to the lack of connection to the characters. ( )

This book is fiction based on the true story of the Radium Dial Painters. These were young women who worked in a factory, painting clock and watch dials with radium paint. Most of these women died tragic deaths, after suffering long illnesses from radium poisoning.

Shelley Stout held me captive with this story. She doesn't weigh us down with the facts and lawsuit details. That is better done in a nonfiction book. With Radium Halos, Stout gives us Helen Waterman, a woman who once worked in the Radium Dial factory and is now suffering with mild mental illness. She tells us her tale through memories, while struggling through each new day.

Helen's story encompasses and goes beyond life at that factory. Her character is vivid and incredibly real. Stout steps completely out of the way and allows Helen's voice to carry the story. And she does so brilliantly. ( )

I truly enjoyed Radium Halos. More importantly, I commend Shelley Stoudt for opening the secret of the women who used radioactive paint to create luminous clock and watch dials at the Radium Dial Factory. It was historical fiction with a punch - an important story to be told.

Radium Halos is a remarkable fictional account of Helen, a North Carolina sixteen-year-old who worked in the Radium Dial Company in Illinois during the 1920s. Helen at age 65 suffers from an undefined mental problem, probably stemming from her proximity to and ingestion of the radioactive paint during her time at the factory.

Stoudt’s use of a colloquial dialect for her naïve, educationally deficient, but observant main character, Helen, is consistent and easily understood. This task is not easily written but masterfully handled here. Helen’s voice is distinct and ingenuous as the book alternates between her youth in the 1920s and her recalling of the events of her past with amazing clarity as a 65 year-old woman. I felt Helen sitting right beside me telling her story and I was sympathetic to her losses. Helen’s sister, Violet, although dead for most of the novel, looms large in the reader’s mind, as a powerful central character. Pearl, the resentful niece, is so well presented this reader constantly worried how she might negatively impact Helen’s life. The other characters are all cast uniquely, but Helen’s compelling voice will stay with me a long time.

What are the consequences of our actions? The author expertly explores this dilemma by interweaving a dual story. On the one hand, the young factory workers play what they perceive as an innocent prank causing a tragedy which they conspire to keep secret. On the other hand, the factory for which they work willfully exploits their workers, disregarding their well being. The author delicately balances how the factory workers dealt for years with ravaging physical effects caused by the paint, without being able to point fingers at the factory because they have pledged not to implicate themselves by revealing their association with it. My interest was perked concerning the legal ramifications the factory encountered years down the road and I would have liked to read more about that aspect.

I often include a quote I find provocative in my reviews. Helen considers what life has handed her. “But I really don’t know which was worse. A lifetime missing a child you almost had, or a lifetime of wishing you could have younguns, but they never come.”

Stoudt’s expert descriptive technique makes me wish I could see this book in a movie version. I’d love to read more by this author.
- Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont ( )