Excellent book. I have recommended it to all my friends. It is a classic!

I loved this book. I was expecting more “lawsuit” stuff, and was actually glad to see that wasn’t the case–a thin veneer over a political statement, however gut-wrenching and important, never makes a truly good novel. Instead, this was all about a depth of character, and the dark circumstances that united the main character in a conspiracy of silence. Yet the lawsuits and the medical situations recurred as a plotline that captivated interest.

I the myriad of tiny details that came across as SO unique and true that it felt like the author had just interviewed this woman named Helen. The voice and the moments were all so genuine. I loved how I could really feel that this was an old, semi-crazy woman who believed inside of herself that she hadn’t changed much from a young, normal factory worker. That’s a hard tightrope for a writer to walk, and Stout did it expertly. Her tale is touching and deep, as well as very complex as it weaves back and forth between timelines. An excellent book, not just for people interested in the radium trials!

“Radium Halos” is a haunting account of the young Radium Dial painters. Shelley Stout does a beautiful job of transporting the reader into a vivid world of youthful excitement, love, raw fear, and injustice. The transitions between present time and the past create a 3-dimensional portrait of the heroine that will have the audience seeing and hearing from her perspective. As an avid reader and fan of Ms. Stout, I enjoyed every page of this novel and was unable to put it down. After lending it to my mother, we reached the consensus that we could taste the bitterness of the paint as each girl swallowed it. I highly recommend “Radium Halos” to anyone looking for an entertaining and historically rich read. For all the reader is aware, this novel could be a piece of their family’s own history.