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The Radium Girls: Young Readers' Edition: The Scary But True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark

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Explore the unbelievable true story of America's glowing girls and their fight for justice in the young readers edition of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller The Radium Girls .

Amid the excitement of the early twentieth century, hundreds of young women spend their days hard at work painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark radium paint. The painters consider themselves lucky—until they start suffering from a mysterious illness. As the corporations try to cover up a shocking secret, these shining girls suddenly find themselves at the center of a deadly scandal.

The Radium Young Readers Edition tells the unbelievable true story of these incredible women, whose determination to fight back saved countless lives.

Audible Audio

Published May 17, 2022

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Kate Moore

13 books2,390 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Christine Gustin.
448 reviews7 followers
January 13, 2026
Listened to this with my 7th and 9th grade girls. So heavy, sad and gruesome. I don’t think I would have had the heart (or stomach) to read the full version.

This book felt very repetitive. Like a fever dream (nightmare) that just kept looping. So much decay, pus, blood, suffering and death. While I think this story is an important one, I think perhaps this book had more repetitive and/or irrelevant details than necessary.

The narrator was a bit hard to understand at times and the sheer number of different people involved made it really hard to for me to follow. I think it might have been better to read this instead of listening to the audiobook.

Overall, this book is a heavy, gruesome, horrifying and heartbreaking true story that isn’t enjoyable to read, but is very eye-opening.
Profile Image for Marilyn Gillitzer.
114 reviews1 follower
November 1, 2023
This was such a hard book to get through and even harder to put down. I was angry and saddened by what these girls went through!!!! They are brave strong women that more people should know about!!!!
Profile Image for Lily.
45 reviews
Read
January 13, 2026
The book was not for me. Someone might enjoy this but for me it was too much blood, death and I feel like it kept saying the same thing over and over again.
Profile Image for Katie Hollenberg.
13 reviews3 followers
August 6, 2025
The story was tragic and heartbreaking. The postscript really devastated me. It is a critical piece of history (and maybe not history but current) that we need to know about. These women were heroes and deserve to be known by everyone for their courage and resilience.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews