Janet Beard’s The Atomic City Girls offers a poignant exploration of one of WWII’s lesser-known chapters: the secret city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women—nicknamed “Calutron Girls”—who sat behind dials and meters, unaware they were helping build the atomic bomb. The novel follows four narrators—countryside newcomer June Walker, her ambitious roommate Cici, Jewish physicist Sam Cantor, and African‑American laborer Joe Brewer—whose personal trajectories intertwine amid wartime secrecy and moral ambiguity.

Beard skillfully sets the scene of a rapidly constructed community, structured by class, race, and gender hierarchies. Through Joe’s perspective, the novel addresses segregation, prison‑line housing, and under‑recognition, offering one of its strongest and most unsentimental narratives. Meanwhile, June’s arc—from naïve farm girl to someone confronting the weight of complicity—captures the emotional heart of the story. Her romance with Sam begins as escapism, but later becomes a complicated vehicle for truth and hurt, especially as he struggles with guilt and addiction.

That said, the structure is somewhat scattered and the characters underdeveloped. The action switches between stories and points of view too often to get invested in any line. The danger of revelation and punishment is dropped, and the ending wraps up all the stories neatly and artificially.

Despite its promise, the plot leans into soap‑opera dynamics and romance more than the industrial or ethical centrality implied by the title. Still, Beard’s inclusion of period photographs adds immediacy, even if some may find them distracting.

The Atomic City Girls is rich with potential—a historically grounded setting and morally resonant themes—yet it often settles for surface drama over depth. It’s a warm, approachable read, but those hoping for intricate character arcs or deeper insight into Oak Ridge’s secret bureaucracy may feel shortchanged.