Radium Halos: A Novel about the Radium Dial Painters

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Radium Halos: A Novel about the Radium Dial Painters

by Shelley Stout (Goodreads Author)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 154 ratings · 55 reviews

Radium Halos is historical fiction based on the true events of the Radium Dial Painters, a group of female factory workers who, in the early 1920s, contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch dials with radium paint. Our narrator is Helen Waterman, a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the factory when she was 16. She tells us her story through flashba...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published October 13th 2009 by Librifiles Publishing (first published June 29th 2009)

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Jul 08, 2009 Laura McDonald rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: girlebooks-authors

In the 1920s the Radium Dial Company opened a factory in Illinois producing luminous paint made from radium. This paint was used to paint clock faces, safety signs, even watches for soldiers-anything that needed to glow in the dark. The primarily female workers at this factory and a similar one in New Jersey were told that the paint was harmless and were even encouraged to lick their paint brushes to sharpen them. This ingestion of the radioactive paint led to severe health problems and sometime...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Savannah rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 loved the myriad of tiny details that came across...more

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Apr 17, 2010 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, goodreads-authors

First, I want to say that a three-star review from me is not a negative review. It means I liked the book, but it either had flaws, in my opinion, that caused me to enjoy it less than I might have otherwise, or it was simply not to my taste. I'm the first one on goodreads to rate it at less than 4 stars, so obviously other people really liked it.

This novel is told from the perspective of Helen, who worked one summer with her sister at the Radium Dial Company when they were both just teenagers, p...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: indie

I thought this book was fascinating. The fact that radium was seen as no big deal - even a cure for illness - always makes me wary of science today.

My one problem with the book is with having the story being told from the viewpoint of Helen - a mentally deficient 65 year old lady. It really limited the development of the other characters. In her eyes, everyone was either all good or all bad. I was interested in Pearl's story as she really had a terrible childhood - a mother who died of radium po...more

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Oct 28, 2012 T.H. Waters rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelley Stout takes command of the protagonist's voice in this historical fiction novel and captures it so convincingly. As a reader, your heart breaks for the hardship endured not only by the main character, Helen Waterman, but for all the real-life Radium Dial Painters, a group of female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch and clock dials with radium paint in the early 1920s. These woman unknowingly gave their lives for such a elemental quest... to e...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, working-class-literature

I have a special interest in working-class history and literature -- especially women's working-class history, so I was delighted to find Radium Halos (through GoodReads, even), a fictional account of the Radium Dial Painters. While novels have been written about other aspects of women's history, (The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, for instance, is a very popular topic for literature), I had never read a fictional account of The Radium Girls. During the early part of the 20th century,...more

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May 16, 2011 Candy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I purchased this book a year ago, but it kept getting pushed to the side. I was on a flight and needed something to read and saw this on my kindle and decided it was time to read it. I don't remember much of the rest of the flights I took that day. This is a fantastically absorbing novel that pulls you into the world of the radium dial painters not only through history but through the fictional story that the author has created for us.

I'll be honest and say that I didn't really know much about t...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Glenda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

Radium Halos is based on the true events of the Radium Dial Painters, a group of female factory workers who, in the early 1920s, contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch dials with radium paint. Our narrator is Helen Waterman, a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the factory when she was 16. She tells us her story through flashbacks, slowly revealing her past, the loved ones she's lost, and the dangerous secrets she's kept all these years.
This is a subject I knew nothing...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Roxann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ok, I admit it: I read this one mainly because it was a cheap Kindle download and I needed something to read on a flight. It turned out to be an interesting historical novel about the radium dial painters of the early 20th century who painted watch and clock faces with luminescent radium paint that led to their poisoning and horrific illnesses and deaths. The novel is about 2 sisters and the friends they make while working at the factory. The real story is broader and more historically significa...more

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Jan 05, 2010 LaDonna Bubak rated it 5 of 5 stars

Radium Halos is a novel of such depth and subtlety that, once started, is nearly impossible to put out of your mind. Seeing the world through Helen's mentally ill eyes is fascinating, but even more fascinating is what she's lived through. The characters are well-developed and very human - the jerks have redeeming qualities, and the angels have flaws. In fact, the entire book is an amazing representation of life: What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Don't be worried, like I was, that this will...more

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Dec 25, 2009 Leonard rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating book that takes the story of the girls who painted the dials on clocks with radium in the 1930s another step. Although it is fiction, it captures the lives and working conditions of these girls and the time, but it goes farther, entering the intimate mind of its main character and following her throughout her life. In its own way it is not only a commentary on the industrial practices of our society, but on health care and the treatment of the mentally ill.

It challenges ou...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Shawn Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Helen is in a mental hospital. She doesn't seem insane; maybe a little slow and maybe a little provincial. Her Carolina accent is front and center in the way she speaks and the way she thinks.

But she doesn't seem crazy.

We begin early on to learn what the problem is: Helen was one of the women who worked at the Radium Dial plant, painting the watch dials so that they would glow in the dark. The women that did this job were paid well, but they were never informed of the dangers in the work they we...more Helen is in a mental hospital. She doesn't seem insane; maybe a little slow and maybe a little provincial. Her Carolina accent is front and center in the way she speaks and the way she thinks.

But she doesn't seem crazy.

We begin early on to learn what the problem is: Helen was one of the women who worked at the Radium Dial plant, painting the watch dials so that they would glow in the dark. The women that did this job were paid well, but they were never informed of the dangers in the work they were doing. Almost immediately, they began to fall sick; dying of horrible cancers.

Helen did not get cancer, but her sister Violet did. And in one of the end scenes of the book we find out just how deeply Helen was affected mentally by witnessing the horrors of her Violet's death- caused by one summer at Radium Dial.

This book was thought-provoking. Told in the first person (a style I usually don't like to read), it is easy to understand why Helen and her sister Violent took a job that today we recognize as a death sentence. The pay was several times what they could earn in other places and they were able, for most of their time working, to finagle free room and board. The radium paint on the toothbrush they were told to "tip" (shape) with their mouths tasted terrible, but so do peas and asparagus.

Central to the story is Helen's dysfunctional family: her niece Pearl, raised by Helen after the death of Violet, Pearl's nasty and lazy son Tony, and Tony's girlfriend Adrienne. Helen has managed to hide completely her past at Radium Dial, and so as the truth starts to surface, an already unstable woman has to deal with the consequences it has on her family.

I didn't like Helen's family. At all. They are not sympathetic, really.

All-in-all, Radium Halos is fascinating for the historical background it provides and well written. The characters are not one-dimensional, and represent their era well. The only reason I gave it three stars rather than four is because I generally dislike reading things written in first-person. (less)

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Apr 08, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, historical-fiction, kindle-books

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...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Holly Weiss rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: History lovers, womens rights advocates

Shelves: 2010-release, american-historical-fiction, new-authors-you-may-not-have-heard

I truly enjoyed Radium Halos. More importantly, I commend Shelley Stout 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...more I truly enjoyed Radium Halos. More importantly, I commend Shelley Stout 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.

Stout’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.”

Stout’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
http://www.hollyweiss.com (less)

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Jul 21, 2010 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, historical-fiction

This story shifts between past and present. Present day has Helen in an infirmary where they are no longer "patients" but "residents." The past has Helen, her sister Violet, and their friend Clara painting the numbers on clocks and watch dials with radium in the factory which employs mostly females. To get a point fine enough on the brush to make the numbers, they are to "kiss" the brush, in essence, eating the radium - a radioactive metal.

Helen tells the story in her uncultured way of talking,...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Barb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1920s, mental-health, read-in-2010

I saw this novel on a friend's bookshelf and it sparked my curiosity. I recently read 'The Death Instinct' by Jed Rubenfeld and radium played a role, I was again remind of this novel and went to reserve it through my library's Inter Library Loan service and was happy to receive a copy very quickly.

Shelly Stout weaves together two stories; one of the past where as a young girl our narrator Helen, her sister Violet and her good friend Clara Jane work at the Radium Dials Company in Ottawa, Illinoi...more

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Oct 21, 2010 stormhawk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

Since I was in high school, I've known about the radium dial painters. There was a radioactive house in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania that got a lot of national attention. It wasn't part of a radium dial factory, though. A doctor had his wife and daughters packing needles full of radium that were used in medical procedures. The articles I read usually made mention of the radium dial factories, and the health problems encountered by the workers.

Ms. Stout goes beyond the science of the situation, and te...more

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May 01, 2010 Irene rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

Radium Halos is not only a fascinating read but also a beautifully written narrative based on young women employed by The Radium Dial Company in the 1920’s, to paint dials on watches and clocks with luminescent radium paint. Neither aware nor informed they willingly sought to attain perfection in the precise art of such labor, which involved swallowing a smidgen of deadly radium whenever a brush was “tipped” to a perfect point.

The unlikely narrator Helen weaves her commemoration tapestry with s...more

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Jan 13, 2010 Megan Palasik rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, kindle

I read this book on my Kindle last weekend when I was on some long flights and waiting in airports. A few years ago I read a book called Radium Girls by Claudia Clark for a chemistry class in college. Since I enjoyed learning through that book, this book, which is a work of fiction, sounded right up my alley.

Radium Halos is about a woman named Helen. Helen is now an older woman who lives in a mental institution, but she was one of the Radium Dial girls for a summer when she was 16-years-old. The...more I read this book on my Kindle last weekend when I was on some long flights and waiting in airports. A few years ago I read a book called Radium Girls by Claudia Clark for a chemistry class in college. Since I enjoyed learning through that book, this book, which is a work of fiction, sounded right up my alley.

Radium Halos is about a woman named Helen. Helen is now an older woman who lives in a mental institution, but she was one of the Radium Dial girls for a summer when she was 16-years-old. The book switches back and forth between telling the story of Helen as she worked in the factory (which was really an old school building) and her present day in the mental hospital and so on. The switches in time periods were a bit too subtle at times and made the story confusing and not flow (as I had to readjust my thoughts to what year the story was).

Helen worked in the factory with her sister and told the story of how they got there (by not telling the whole truth to their single parent father), the friends they made, and the adventures they had that summer before they returned home. In the present time period for Helen, she is being released from the mental hospital into the care of her niece (whom Helen raised after her sister passed away at a young age). Her niece is getting married soon and doesn't have a whole lot of time or patience for Helen, so that makes for some interesting situations as well.

The overall story sounds believable. Helen's narration thoughout has poor grammar throughout, which gives a bit more of an authentic feel to the girl who grew up in the 1910s-1920s and lived in the south. The choices and feelings of the girls and then Helen as an adult also seem authentic.

Overall it was a good read and can give some insightful information not only about the girls who worked in the Radium Dial factory, but about people who have been institutionalized without being boring and filled with just facts. The book didn't strike me as completely amazing, hence the 4/5 stars. I just didn't feel as emotionally vested in the characters as I could have been. Even the epilogue didn't give me as much information to wrap it all up as I had hoped.(less)

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May 20, 2010 Tara Chevrestt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-that-really-existed-fiction, historical-fiction, library

While reading this novel, I was reminded of that popular teen book and movie, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." Tho not a bad book, it wasn't what I was expecting, a novel about factory life in the 1920s and the hazards and effects of working with radium. Instead, the novel is really about a group of teenagers that commit a crime one summer and vow to never tell about it. They just all happen to work at the Radium Dial Company.

The book did go into some of the health hazards and side effects of...more

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Aug 26, 2010 R.L. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the story; I liked Helen. The book was funny and poignant, especially so when you think that things like this happened to real people.

My main problem is that there were a couple of major things that I didn't find convincing:
(1) the relationship between Helen and Adrienne. I kept feeling distracted by nagging questions about why Adrienne would do all those nice things for Helen? Yes, Adrienne's a nurse, and yes, she really needs a friend, but she has her own (huge) problems, and I just c...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Melissa Summers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, kindle

Radium dials are a brief mention in history and yet the effects on the lives of the radium workers were devestating.
What lengths will a young woman go to earn money in a world that does not have many options for women? What work evironments existed that knowingly allowed young employees to work with a hazardous substance?
This book offers a glimpse into history, growing up and all the hidden hazards of life beyond the safety of home.

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Jul 07, 2012 Gloria rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was definitely a "surprise" book. Ms. Stout did a wonderful job in the storytelling of the girls of Radium Halo. I highly recommend this to all my NC friends. All the North Carolina locations certainly give this a local feeling to this book. Her characters are full of flaws and lived with a terrible secret (secrets). It is a story of friendship, love and forgiveness. We all need those in our lives.

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Jun 12, 2010 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010, general-fiction, kindle-lendable, historical-fiction

Given that the subtitle is "A Novel About the Radium Dial Painters", I expected there to be more of a focus on the girls actually working in the factory that used radium paint. But although it is a thread that runs through the story, it really isn't at all what the story is about.

The story is narrated by Helen who spent a summer working at the Radium Dial factory in Illinois. Something tragic happens that summer that affects the rest of Helen's life. The story is set mainly in the early 1970's,...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Darcia Helle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, fiction, general-fiction, historical-fiction

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 Ra...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Karla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, historical, favorites

What a great idea for a story, so original and I loved Helen's voice thoughout the novel. Really is an interesting look into young women doing factory work in the 1920's. Sure made me ill reading how they were taken advantage of and not honestly informed of what they were using and it's dangers. Sad to hear they never really won much from their plight. Since I work production on a larger scale I feel like I really learned and became more informed of the background of this issue in factories and...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Carla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-books

I really enjoyed this book, even though at times it infuriated me. It's a novel, but it's based on actual events and no doubt there were actual women who suffered through what the ones in this book did.

The characters in this story really came alive for me. The main character, Helen, is someone I wish I really knew -- and also someone my heart ached for through most of this book.

I enjoy stories told in retrospect by older people, and the author did a beautiful job with that technique.

I don't re...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Tara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

Radium Halos is historical fiction based on the true events of the Radium Dial Painters, a group of female factory workers who, in the early 1920s, contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch dials with radium paint. Our narrator is Helen Waterman, a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the factory when she was 16. She tells us her story through flashbacks, slowly revealing her past, the loved ones she's lost, and the dangerous secrets she's kept all these years.

I enjoyed thi...more

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May 26, 2011 Beckimoody Moody rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is based on real life, and I really enjoyed learning about a time in history that I knew nothing about. The main story is told in flashbacks which was a little frustrating because I kept wanting to learn more about how she ended up where she was.

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Sep 28, 2009 Lana Voynich rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading Radium Halos: A Novel about the Radium Dial Painters by Shelley Stout so much that I finished it in one day. I'd never heard of the radium dial painters before, so it was great learning about them while being entertained by the intriguing characters and all their realistic foibles. Ms. Stout's distinct voice made it seem like I was listening to the main character, Helen Waterman, tell the story instead of reading it. I laughed with the characters and found myself near tears at...more

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About Shelley Stout

Originally from Annandale, Virginia, Shelley Stout resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she enjoys spending time with her two grown sons. She also enjoys volunteering at a local homeless shelter. Shelley is a contributing writer for Parent Teacher Magazine, and her award-winning fiction has appeared in anthologies, The Storyteller Magazine and online at WordRiot.

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