Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

85 reviews

keeganrb's review against another edition

informative tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Incest

amcghig's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Medical content, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Chronic illness

sidekicksam's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Part education about the HeLa cells and their contribution to the pharmaceutical and medical field, part account of the journey of the Lackses have undertaken together with 'their reporter' Miss Rebecca, to discover more about the life of their mother Henrietta. Despite HeLa's invaluable contribution to the advancement in medicine, the family she left behind is left with nothing but questions.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, learning about medical practices in the fifties (and their very unethical conduct), the advancement of science thanks to nameless and uninformed 'donors,' and the life of a woman made immortal by her cancer-cells. Instead of reading as a boring non-fiction novel, Skloot's decision to involve the quest for the truth she went on (mainly with Deborah/Dale) made it so much more heartwarming to read. 

I consider this to be essential reading for everyone working in medicine/pharma and have a good hard look at the ethics of the use of cells without informed consent. I'd recommend this book to anyone. 

Easy 5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Cancer, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Blood, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dar101's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, and Medical trauma

creationwing's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

I wasn't a huge fan of the attempts at Chinese and Austrian accents by the audiobook reader. It felt off in a book with themes so closely tied to facing racism. It didn't help that they weren't very well done, either.

There were moments when the book seemed a little too voyeuristic for my taste; I'm not sure that all the details included were necessary for me to learn about this historic figure, her family's struggles, and have understanding of the suffering and unjustice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Child death, Violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Body horror, Cancer, Medical trauma, Racism, and Confinement

Moderate: Vomit, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Self harm, Pedophilia, Rape, Death of parent, Slavery, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Infidelity, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Incest, Drug abuse, and Deadnaming

There are detailed descriptions of the autopsies of

Henrietta and her daughter Elsie

, which may be disturbing to some people. I certainly had to pause the audiobook to mentally prepare myself.

larkiereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

What a book. What an incredible story, told brilliantly. I'd heard of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells before, but I'm not a biologist, and the scope of this book always seemed intimidating. However, Skloot's writing is fascinating and accessible, and every time I found myself asking more questions on a topic and thinking of doing some Googling for clarification, she would swoop in and answer my questions nearly and concisely. 

This book reads like a mystery, and although it never had me quite on the edge of my seat, I kept wanting to return to it to find out what happened next. She alternates between science history (and simple explanations of the science itself) and biography, discussing not only Henrietta's life and the advancements made with HeLa cells, but also her own search for information. The book moves along fairly quickly, and even though Rebecca is an active participant, she never centers herself and her reporting over the Lacks family and their experiences. She doesn't hold back, good or bad (or very very bad), and clearly establishes that this book is a collaboration. 

I could go into the minutiae of everything this book did well, but I'm sure there are more in depth reviews out there that would do a better job. I want to close this review by saying that everyone should read this book. We owe so much of our medical advancements in the last 60 years to Henrietta Lacks, and there is ongoing debate about informed consent in tissue research and gene copyrights that affect us all. On top of that, I feel like I understand more about medical research because I've read it. And it was (mostly) fun to read! The writing and craft in this book are absolute perfection. Please give it a try.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest

udari's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Suicide and Bullying

jayisreading's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

3.75

A few days after finishing this book, I’m still struggling to work out how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I’m incredibly grateful that I got to learn so much about Henrietta Lacks, HeLa, as well as the circumstances and history surrounding Lacks and her cells. I don’t venture into science-related books very often, but this one was engaging. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something exploitative about the book, even if Skloot received consent from the Lacks family and everything. I don’t know if it was the way she inserted herself into this narrative or what, but something felt off. I also can’t help but wonder how much financial compensation the Lacks family received for their contributions to this book, as well as from the movie that was made a few years later. From what I’ve gathered on Skloot’s website, it seems like they have, but again, how much?

I’ve been thinking about a quote from the book that really highlights the frustration one may feel about the Lacks family’s situation: “She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?“ I felt so much anger reading this book, not so much because of the topic, but because of the injustices that Henrietta Lacks, her family and, really, the Black community have faced. There’s a lot in this book to digest— Despite my concerns, I think there’s a lot of important information that makes this book worth reading in the end.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Incest

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

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

kaceyatwood's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, and Sexual assault