A review by ravensandlace
Half Life by Jillian Cantor

4.0

Title: Half Life

Author: Jillian Cantor

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: suicide, parental death, sickness, sexism, alcohol, blood, stillbirth, misogyny, cancer, infidelity, death, miscarriage, domestic violence, bombing, assassination

One of my niche interests (I have so many of them) is Marie Curie. I think she’s so incredibly fascinating. It’s so wild to me that she manhandled radium, her notes are so full of radium that you have to have protective gear and sign a waiver to look at them and some are even kept in lead boxes, and she was buried in a lead coffin. But I didn’t know anything about her early life. I had seen this book floating around and I knew I had to get my hands on it. 

This book has such a cool concept. We follow the life of Marie Curie and Marya, her name in Poland. They are the same person but Marya's timeline followed what might have happened if she hadn’t gone to Paris and stayed with her fiance Kazimierz in Poland. The Marya timeline is fabricated but it was so cool to read what might have been. 

I couldn’t tell you whose POV I liked more. Both were so interesting and I truly bonded with each of them. And it was fun to see the parallels of their lives. Some things happened to both Marie and Marya but in different ways. I feel like both of them could have been friends with each other, even though I know they are the same person.

I also enjoyed how easy this book was to read. Sure, it had a lot of science stuff but it was explained in a way that made sense to me, who cannot understand anything relating to science unless it has something to do with the human body. It’s hard to enjoy a book when I don't understand the concepts so I’m glad it was explained in layman’s terms. 

Overall, this book has got me super excited about Marie Curie. I am very interested in learning more about her life and her work especially since I’ve read about the radium girls. Luckily the author listed books that helped with her research including one written by Marie’s daughter. Overall, I highly recommend this book.