Review of The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie
The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Henry Herz (Blackstone Publishing, 2023), is a speculative fiction anthology that blends historical fact about Marie Curie’s life as a young woman and fantastical, science fiction, and horror elements to present new and intriguing experiments a young Marie might have undertaken.
Most of my favorite stories in this anthology were among the darker fantastical pieces. “Marya’s Monster” by Alethea Kontis presents Marie Curie with a literal monster under the bed, and their conversations about the nature of fear are both thought provoking and charming. “Shards of Me” by Lissa Price has another girl steal Marie Curie’s body, but between Marie’s cleverness and a family game, she’s able to take it back. Finally, while “Retribution” by Christine Taylor-Butler has Marie going down a quite dark path, the revenge she extracts while doing so is deliciously satisfying.
If you’re a fan of Marie Curie and want to learn more about her early days while also enjoying fictional depictions of those days, I definitely recommend The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie. The stories within are generally young adult appropriate, though many involve death (the death of Marie’s mother and sister are mentioned in a majority of the stories), either in a limited mention or widespread throughout the story. There are also many reminders of the attempted Russian erasure of Polish culture, language, and heritage, against which Marie and her family fought.
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