Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

30 reviews

udari's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying and Suicide

elizabethgreads's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed the way this book was told.  It flips back and forth between the science, history, and ethics of tissue and cell culture and the Life of Henrietta Lacks and her family. This is an incredibility important story that I think everyone should read.  The author does a great job of describing scientific terms in such away that the reader can understand without having much knowledge on the subject. I enjoyed the exploration of the topics of informed consent, medical privacy, research ethics, and commercialization of human cell products.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Dementia, and Abandonment

becca_w_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Self harm, Vomit, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, and Car accident

foreverinastory's review against another edition

emotional informative sad

5.0

Everyone should read this book, but especially the scientific field.

CWs: Abandonment, ableism, addiction, blood, cancer, child abuse, chronic illness, death, death of parent, drug abuse/use, emotional abuse, fatphobia, forced institutionalization, grief, incest, infidelity, medical content, medical trauma, mental illness (PTSD), physical abuse, pedophilia, pregnancy, racial slurs, racism, rape, sexual assault, sexual content, sexual harassment, terminal illness, vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

peachmoni's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Stalking

ericadansereau's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

Incredible story I couldn’t put down. I appreciated the insight into Henrietta and her family, I felt like I got to know them. The author did a wonderful job with her thorough report detailing facts about the HeLa cell line and all of the ethical and legal concerns surrounding it. Some of the book was quite shocking and disturbing to read when it came to medical care and general treatment of this family and black patients. This is such an important subject and I definitely recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, and Death of parent

hannahollihan's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual assault

bi_blue's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape

marieketron's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

I felt very ambivalent about this book and my rating of it dropped the more of it I read. It's an important book to read but the execution could have been a lot better.

the good bits

• the science history
• discussions on science ethics, especially in regards to informed consent
• the life history of Henrietta
• overview of the scientific controversies related to HeLa
• life of the Lacks family and how they relate to Henrietta and HeLa

the not so good bits

• clearly the story of Henrietta and HeLa is important and needs to be told, but at the same time the Lacks family did not reach out to reporters or writers in order for the story to be told. It calls into question whether we have the right to a story just because it's important and regardless of the people connected to it, which very closely ties in with the type of issues the book itself is discussing.
• this issue is emphasised by the author continuously inserting herself into the narrative, to the point of almost making herself up like a White Saviour. i skipped through the last few chapters where the we are learning everything about Deborah from the author's perspective. It is important for Henrietta's family to have a clear voice in this work, but it could have been done in a way that didn't include the author.
• specific for the audiobook version, I felt very uncomfortable with the accents the narrator used to give form to the Lacks family, other Black people, and a few Asian and German characters. this issue is especially egregious because Bahni Turpin was contracted as one of the two narrators but only used very sparingly and extremely inconsistently. She would have been the perfect voice for Henrietta's daughter Deborah, but she only reads the occasional direct quote from her. I can remember three instances throughout the book where the narrator is Turpin.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, and Blood

steffk's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Incest and Slavery