Glow


Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2018
Format: Paperback / softback

ISBN 9780807529652

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    When thrift-store aficionado Julie discovers a series of antique paintings with hidden glowing images that are only visible in the dark, she wants to learn more about the artist. In her search, she uncovers a century-old romance and the haunting true story of the Radium Girls, young women who used radioactive paint to make the world’s first glow-in-the-dark products—and ultimately became radioactive themselves. As Julie’s obsession with the paintings mounts, truths about the Radium Girls—and her own complicated relationships—are revealed. But will she uncover the truth about the luminous paintings before putting herself and everyone she loves at risk?

    Information

    Book Type: Senior High
    Age Group: 16 years +
    Traffic Lights: Amber
    Class Novel: Yes
    Good Reads Rating: 4.5/5
    Literary Rating: 4.5/5

    Review

    This interesting, historically inspired work is told in alternating chapters between Julie in the present day and Lydia in 1917.

    Julie has been working two jobs saving up to go to art school, but her college dreams are wiped out when she has to save her mum’s house from foreclosure. When she finds a painting of an aviator in a secondhand shop, her best friend Lauren insists on buying it for her. That night, as she turns out the lights, a completely different picture appears.

    As an artist, the luminescent painting technique intrigues her and she tracks down some more paintings that came from the same collection. Each one has a strange and—in some—morbid image that only shows up in darkness.

    In 1917, Lydia has just started work at the factory where her sister Liza has been for some time. Job openings are few and far between and very sought after due to the good pay and conditions, but one of the girls (Edna) has fallen ill and Liza uses her influence with the workshop foreman to get Lydia the position.

    When Edna dies a painful death and Liza also falls ill, Lydia realises something is terribly wrong with the paint they have been using at the factory – and the ‘health tonic’ the company has been promoting as a cure-all.

    Back in the current day, Julie’s new romantic interest, a science student called Luke, tests one of the paintings to help Julie in her quest to replicate the technique, only to discover they are radioactive...

    This is a fascinating and at times disturbing story primarily set in a World War 1 factory. Much like the matchstick girls in London who suffered terribly from phosphorous poisoning in the late 1800s, the girls in this story were afflicted by the fluorescent (radium) paint used on watch faces for the men in the trenches. The company also sold health tonics that purported to be a cure-all but were in fact incredibly poisonous. The cover-ups, lies and blatant disregard for the welfare of their workers cost women their lives, and ultimately led to the workplace health and safety movement that is so prevalent today.

    This is an incredibly worthwhile, eye-opening and at times challenging read for older readers.

    Favourite quote
    : My every advantage was born from someone else’s selflessness. (p247).

    Themes

    financial disadvantage, family, war, factory workers, workplace health and safety, radium, sisters, history, radiation poisoning, romance

    Content Notes

    1. Language: Jesus x 3 (p7, 28, 152). 2. Lauren wants Julie to go with her to have a psychic reading as part of a ‘fun day out’ but Julie resists – she can’t understand why anyone would want to. Lauren gives up the idea (p6-7). 2. Mr Mills (who has been seeing Lydia) has syphilis. She doesn’t get infected because ‘I saw the sore on his __’ and didn’t have sex with him (p194). When Lydia tells the company owners that her illness is due to the fluorescent paint, they falsely insist she has syphilis (therefore her illness is nothing to do with her work) and is essentially a ‘loose woman’. The unspoken threat of ruining her reputation is their way of covering up the truth and keeping her quiet. 3. Julie and Luke are kissing in the mud on what she later calls ‘the worst day of her life’ and things get heated (p201-3). Julie is insistent things go further but Luke stops her because ‘she is worth more than that’. She isn’t thinking clearly or behaving how she normally would, but it turns out to be due to the radiation poisoning. She later feels shame and embarrassment (p233).

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