November 4, 2021

ARC REVIEW: The Curie Society by Heather Einhorn, Adam Staffaroni and Janet Harvey


The Curie Society by Heather Einhorn, Adam Staffaroni, and Janet Harvey
Rating: 4 Stars
Release Date: April 27, 2021
Format: eARC
Publisher: MIT Press


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The Curie Society is the read I wish I had when I was little. I’m a Chemistry major, so I got very excited when I saw a book celebrating Marie Curie and females in STEM. The story does cover some advanced concepts due to the setting of the story being college. However, the writers do a good job of making it accessible. I suspect the vocabulary will still be over some people’s heads, but they anticipated that and included a glossary. A large chunk of the story and the plot is dedicated to the works and accomplishments of Marie Curie, but it does give some subtle nods to other famous women in STEM like Ada Lovelace and Emmy Noether.

The premise of the story is that Marie Curie started a secret society of sorts to get more women into the STEM fields. They become spies of sorts and work to protect the progression of science. We follow three main characters, Taj, Maya, and Simone as they navigate the pitfalls and high points of college. I enjoyed the realistic nature of the scenes in the book. Maya’s experience with her first time washing clothes solo (and the horror when she messes it up) felt very relatable and humorous. In terms of audience, I recommend this to readers who are in middle school or older who have an interest in pursuing the STEM field in their future. It is equally well suited to both boys and girls (despite some of the obvious feminist leanings). The art in this book is fantastic. However, I do want to note that from the cover alone it isn’t obvious the story is set in college. They look very young on the cover, so it was a shock to learn their actual age at the beginning of the story.

 

Thank you to MIT Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this book.


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