The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

Who would've guessed that a novel about an elderly victim of unethical medical experiments who sets out to kill the now doddering doctor who administered the radioactive cocktails fifty years ago would be funny. But it is! Humorous, quirky, and offbeat all describe the unusual, but like able characters that inhabit the Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, by Elizabeth Stuckey-French.

Stuckey-French's characters are sympathetically drawn. They're quirky, but never so quirky that they feel unreal. The writing is quite lively and truly original. Don't let the title fool you: This is no sci-fi tale. It's a comic family drama with warm characters who aren't so flawed they might not be redeemed.

The 77 year old Marylou Ahearn is determined to kill show more Dr. Wilson Spriggs to avenge his involvement in the medical experiment that cost her her only child Helen. When Marylou finally tracks Dr Spriggs down, she moves to his neighborhood and takes on a new identity and introduces herself to the family. Not that the family wants anything to do with this nosy old biddy....

She then discovers that Dr. Spriggs has major memory loss - and doesn't seem to recall much of anything. So, instead of murder, Marylou plans to disrupt his life through his family. She finds a way to meet his grandchildren. Then she falls for young Suzi - a sporty, outgoing and slightly tormented young girl. As Marylou gets to know Suzi and her sister Ava, and their brother Otis, she finds a closeness and friendship she hadn't expected. And her carefully laid plans go awry. This family needs help, not more mistakes. And Marylou may just be the one who can help them all.

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady has been compared to the movie Little Miss Sunshine because of the quirky, unusual characters and unexpected situations. Elizabeth Stuckey-French's novel is entertaining, engrossing and hard to forget. It kept me coming back the whole of my confinement because of illness, nearly desperate to find out more. And hoping, against everything that's gone wrong in this family, maybe they all can set things right again...?

Very recommended. show less

Despite a wonderful title, entertaining premise, and funny opening, this book ultimately fell flat for me. Billed as a comedy, this book takes too many dark turns for me to find it amusing. Plotting and maybe even carrying out revenge on the doctor that tricked you into participating in secret government research- perfectly fine and potentially funny. Turning your attentions to ruining the lives of his already fragile grandchildren when you discover he is afflicted with Alzheimers- not OK and not at all funny.

This read like two separate stories to me- one a serious and interesting look at family disfunction, one an amusing tale of revenge. When combined into one book though, neither story as allowed to live up to its potential. 3 stars.

Marylou Ahearn wants revenge.
Badly.
When she finds the target of her hate living peacefully in Florida she sets up housekeeping under a different name and starts to integrate herself into the family. Only there is one problem - her tormentor has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember a thing.

Or does he?

This book was a total hoot! Despite the dark topics involved in the plot it is written with a wry sense of humor that makes all of the murder/kidnapping/secret government testing seem justifiable. The characters build slowly as they tell their stories in chapters told in their voices.
The plot was fun - there is no other word for it. There were twists and turns and a hurricane to boot. Marylou is a bit touched but she has reason to be - whether show more that reason is how her life turned out or the radioactive cocktail she drank I have no idea but it sure made it a blast to follow her story. If you are looking for a good book that will make you chuckle and think, this is the book for you. show less

Nancy Archer is the giant woman, made huge by contact with a space alien, in the campy old movie, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. So when Marylou Ahearn moves to Tallahassee for the sole purpose of killing Dr. Wilson Spriggs, she adopts that character's name. And she is a Radioactive Lady, thanks to a radioactive cocktail given to her without her knowledge as part of Dr. Spriggs's study. She, like the other women in this 1950s study, was pregnant. And her child died of cancer. Revenge, in 2006, is long overdue.

Can revenge be sweet when the object of revenge no longer remembers what he has done? Do the ends justify the means – whether it is a scientific study or a murder? Maybe revenge would be better served by hurting this doctor's show more family. This messed-up family has problems of its own, both by circumstance and of its own creation. Two of the children have Asperger's Syndrome and don't make life easy for their put-upon, depressed mother. One of them is building a nuclear breeder/reactor in the backyard shed. The other is currently obsessed with Elvis. The third and “normal” child feels pressure to be perfect and can't quite live up to expectations. Their father flirts with women he shouldn't but spends most of his time in the basement, tracking hurricanes. Grandpa, the evil doctor, generally doesn't have a clue about what is happening.

To quote Donald Rumsfeld, “My goodness!” (No, he wasn't talking about this book – I just wanted to quote him.) I love the title of the book, and the story is funny in a dark sort of way. I expected more humor, despite the grim subject. For the most part, the characters are unlikeable, quirky,but interesting. Reading this, I felt like one of those people who really, really doesn't want to look at the car wreck she has just driven by, but does anyway. So, does Marylou/Nancy manage to kill Dr. Spriggs or does she settle for hurting the family? Does anyone ever live happily ever after? What makes the novel more than just entertaining is the very sad fact that such experiments were conducted on pregnant women without their knowledge. Marylou was justified in her anger, but she let it take over her life.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher, for which I am grateful. The advance copy had more typos than I have come to expect in galleys, but I trust they will be corrected in the published edition. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's wacky, it's fun, and I suspect this is the antidote for some of the deeply depressing fiction I usually love to read. Full of oddball characters who take the reader on a wild journey through loss and revenge and multiple surprises, this novel is written in well-crafted prose that never clunks. The borderline-ditsy but definitely gutsy main character Marylou and the various quirky members of the Spriggs and Coffey families are still with me. I hope they hang around for a while. I like their company.

In the 1950s, Marylou Ahearn was a young mother-to-be when she was given a radioactive cocktail to drink (“vitamins,” she was told) as part of an ill-advised medical experiment. Now seventy-seven, she feels that this event destroyed her life and she’s out for revenge—from the even more elderly doctor who prescribed it. In fact, she’s decided to kill him. But her plan turns out to be more complicated than she expects and as she seeks to gain access to him, she finds herself entangled with his family (daughter, son-in-law, and three teenagers). Her murderous plot just might wind up giving all of them “new life.”

The family of Dr. Wilson Spriggs are your basic literary fiction characters. The adults’ marriage is quietly show more unhappy; the kids feel either over-parented or neglected; the dad is having a rather joyless flirtation with a trampy coworker; etc. Into this depressing setup, Marylou storms like an invader from some more interesting genre of fiction to shake things up. The result is an entertaining and satisfying read. show less

In the mid-1950s, Marylou was an unsuspecting subject in a medical experiment to test radiation treatments. Fifty years later, she is still angry about the consequences of the radioactive cocktails she drank and moves to Tallahassee to get revenge on the doctor who ran the experiments. But Dr. Wilson Spriggs is suffering from dementia and lives with his daughter, her husband, and their three children, all of whom are facing challenges of their own.

This is definitely serious subject matter, but Stuckey-French approaches the story with a bit of irreverence. Marylou is not your typical criminal, and her attempts to plot a murder are somewhat humorous. The relationships that unfold between the characters are tender. And it soon becomes show more clear that nothing is as it appears. In the hands of a lesser author, I'm not sure that the story would have worked as well. But, no worries. With Stuckey-French, you are in the hands of a master. show less