Author: Shannon St. Hilaire
Year published: 2026
Category: Adult fiction (historical)
Pages: 376
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2026 Google Reading map): USA (WA)
Summary: What is the half-life of O’Toole family secrets?
In 2013, Saige is stuck living with her Granny Rosamond in her beige wasteland of a hometown. Desperate for a diagnosis and cure for her mysterious ailments, she uncovers more than she bargained for—a hot rock that shouldn’t exist and a past Rosamond refuses to explain.
That past takes place in the 1940s, when 50,000 people move to an eastern Washington town that doesn’t exist to build something they can’t name. Rosamond is one of them, eager to do her bit for the war effort—and find a husband. When she falls for a charming engineer, she envisions a perfect life. But as the hot war turns cold and her ever-expanding family becomes increasingly troubled, she discovers this nuclear town is no utopia, and she must decide whether to cling to the destructive facade of domestic bliss or face the truth that could save them all.
When Rosamond’s past collides with Saige’s search for healing, half-buried secrets—from the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere to the wounds within their own family—can no longer be ignored. Can Saige discover the truth and heal herself without destroying her grandmother’s life?
Review: I haven't done a TLC Tour in such a long time! Historical fiction is a good genre for me, especially when I don't know much about the topic, so this one worked for me. Families who worked in Hanford, WA, during World War II on a "secret" mission. In other words, they were working with a phase of nuclear bomb testing and were never told about the radiation and its consequences. This book did a good job telling the story from 1945 to the '50s, as well as contemporary generations and the illnesses everyone is facing.
Seeing the story through Saige's experiences, her illness (which doctors ignored and belittled for years), her interactions with her family, and through her conversations with her Granny and a family friend, we slowly learn the story of Hanford and the O'Toole family. This novel goes beyond just the story of a polluted town and also covers nature vs nurture, a destroyed family, acoholism and abuse. It is not a story for the faint of heart. But it's an important story and well told.
Challenges for which this counts: none
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