Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

73 reviews

moniipeters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Incest, Racism, Violence, Abandonment, Ableism, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Cursing, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Child death

bootrat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Racism

Minor: Alcoholism

jbro12's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death, Racism, Medical trauma, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, and Child abuse

saskiahill's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Fascinating and moving

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Cancer

Moderate: Addiction, Slavery, Racism, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicide and Incest

zams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

English: Definitly the best book I've read so far.
The telling of the stories as well as  the presentation of the researched data was incredible. As somebody who only learned English as a 2nd language I was a little nervous about the presence of authentic language, but it made the whole bok just a lot more real and therefor enjoyable.
An absolutely outstanding work by everybody that contributed. This is not just a book about science but also one that transfers heavy emotins right through the pages.

Deutsch:  Definitiv eines der besten Bücher die ich bisher gelesen habe.
Das Erzähle der Geschichten genauso wie die Präsentation der gesammelten Daten sind unvergleichlich.
Ich hatte zuerst etwas Respekt vor der Tatsache dass authentische Sprache in dem Buch verwendet wird, allerdings war das Verständnis absolut kein Problem, und gab der Geschichte das gewisse etwas, dass sie so persönlich macht. Ich weiß nicht wie diese Parts in der deutschen Übersetzung wirken.
Definitv eine herausragende Arbeit von allen, die daran mitgewirkt haben. 
Nicht nur ein Buch über Wissenschaft, sondern auch eines dass es schafft, heftige Emotionen durch die Seiten zum Leser zu transportieren.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Death, Cancer, Grief, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Ableism, and Chronic illness

Minor: Addiction

kirstenpod_'s review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Racism, Death, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Child abuse

Minor: Incest, Physical abuse, Slavery, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

martha_is_reading's review against another edition

I was enjoying the book and found the history of the HeLa cells fascinating; while the treatment of Henrietta Lacks and her family was sad to listen to. I would have carried on but about a quarter of the way through there were a lot of graphic descriptions of the physical and sexual violence that Henrietta’s children were subjected to after her death and I just found it too much 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

graceburke's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

One of, if not the most impactful book I've ever read. Rebecca Skloot is a thoughtful and thorough writer as she tells the story of Henrietta, her family, and her cells. I knew very little of Henrietta and her story when I started. I'm not very knowledgable about science in general, let alone cell culture , but this book was extremely accessible. Moving between telling the past life of Henrietta, the present life of her children, specifically her daughter Deborah, and the immortal life of her cells, Skloot shares the horrors and racism of the world through medical practices and the treatment of the Lacks family. She forces you to think about the morality of different medical practices through an in depth exploration of the advancements of medicine on the backs of Black and Brown people. Where does the line between public responsibility and personal rights stand? Do the ends justify the means? Is fiscal compensation enough of a form of reparations? 
The story of Henrietta and her family is complex, Deborah would be one of the first people to admit such. It's hard and harrowing. The duality of distrust for the abuse their family endured and the recognition that it was Lacks' cells that allowed for the saving of millions of lives and counting globally is not lost on them. 
I gasped, cried, and laughed. Deborah and Skloot's relationship is something I will be thinking about for a long time. I'm so grateful the Lacks' story has finally been shared. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Classism, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Terminal illness, and Miscarriage

grboph's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I had to read part of this book as part of a project on bioethics for an anatomy and physiology class, but it was so interesting and well-written that I decided to read the entire thing. I'm very glad I did!! The story of Henrietta Lacks, her cells, and her family is a very fascinating one, and Skloot tells it very well. I really liked that she included herself as a secondary "character" in the book - this served to make the rest of the events of the story and the people she met seem more real because her interactions with them were documented. I learned so much from reading this book about cell biology, genetics, bioethics and its history, medical racism, and so many other things. It's very important this book exists, as it tells the story of a woman whose life affects everybody (due to how ubiquitous HeLa cells are) and how the way she was treated by Johns Hopkins doctors affected her and her family. It also raises a lot of very important points about informed consent and financial compensation, and how attitudes about these things have shifted over time. This was a very informative and well-crafted book, and I would recommend it to just about anyone, but especially anybody who is interested in medicine, biology, and bioethics.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Slavery, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

rumay's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Incest, Infertility, and Infidelity