The Atomic City Girls

Can you imagine a story based on historical facts that takes small town city girls and gets them to work in a secret city in Oak Ridge, Tennessee? All the girls know is that it is a job, will help them earn a living while the men are serving overseas in the war, and that they are helping their own country. They are required to sign documents that states they are not allowed to share anything that goes on within the Oak Ridge city limits and to do so might just get you jail time, a hefty fine, loss of your employment or all three.

The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard is the novel that takes place in November of 1944 when a young 18-year old girl, June Walker begins what will be a defining moment in her career working in someplace she can't even talk about or write about. She struggles to understand her own role in things, when she marries a man she doesn't love only to have him killed in the war. Now she faces coming to terms with her widowhood at such a young age, while other girls around her are more than happy to benefit from the movies, dances and social activities that abound after they leave their monotonous jobs.

All she does with every other girl is work in a cubicle all day watching dials, and when they deviate from their norms, she dials them back in. She questions what this might all be, but she knows she also can't afford to lose her job by talking about it either. Spies are literally everywhere who would be all too happy to report anyone from breaking any of the strike employment guidelines they were all required to sign upon their first day of work. It appears there is more than meets the eye where she works and one day, a young girl makes the mistake of wearing hair pins to work only to have them ripped violently from her head. What does this secret city have to do with magnets and the war effort? You'll have to read this novel for more inside information.

I received The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. What I LOVED about this novel is all the historical photos that a placed throughout the novel, from the elaborate signs being placed all over the city, to the plain boring work stalls each girl had to work in. How they managed not to go crazy from boredom is beyond me, but at a time where each was assured they were all helping the war effort, things begin to change once the first of two bombs fell on Japan and soon enough things began to be discovered and wondered how dangerous were their jobs if this was the result. I easily give this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

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The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard

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