Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

98 reviews

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

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

mrslsmith's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Racism

hshinn21's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Truly one of the best, most informative, and gut-wrenching books I've ever read. I'm glad it's become famous because I think everyone should know this story. 

But you should know: this book might be difficult to read. It was for me at some points. It talks frankly, but not grotesquely, of many terrible things: and this is part of what makes it so important. I started listing content warnings below and the list looks a little bit overwhelming at first glance. So know your limits, and be prepared. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Racism, Medical content, Cancer, Violence, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Medical trauma

maya_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Cancer

Minor: Child abuse

anushar's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I read this book because I bought it to make myself smarter and ended up reading it for a school project. I usually avoid nonfiction books like the plague, but this one was pretty good. You don’t need to know a lot about science to read it, and it tells an important story, so I would recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Incest, Medical content, Pedophilia, Chronic illness, Death, Child abuse, and Child death

kennedybullen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Racial slurs, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, and Child abuse

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Incest, and Suicide

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.

charlotttemare's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Abandonment, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse

academicanko's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Henrietta Lacks is a name unknown to most, however, she may be the most important women to medical science of all time. She was a black woman living in the south in America. Henrietta Lacks had cancer tissue cultures taken from her without her consent and those cells became the first ever immortal cells. 

She later died after those cultures were taken.

Her cells are used to create vaccines and medicines to this day. They were even use to help develop the corona virus vaccines. However, her family has not seen a cent of this money. This book goes over the author and her interactions with the family and the research the cells have supported. She mostly speaks with the youngest daughter, Deborah Lacks. Deborah did not know much about her mother and her older sister, Elsie. This family's plight and trauma is vast. They have been harassed and abused. They have a plethora of health concerns but cannot afford insurance. I cried throughout this book just thinking about their circumstances. 

This books opens the conversation to consent and much more. What does research allow and does my autonomous rights cover cells? Now technology is advanced enough to understand DNA. Is it really okay to have my DNA abused in ways I have no control? Who should get compensation? Hasn't commercialization of pharmaceuticals hindered science more than helped it? America has always had a horrible situation when it comes to health care and insurance. It is one of the reasons I live abroad. 

When doing more research on this book, I have noticed that many criticize the author for her way of approaching the family. I later learned that this book has challenged to be banned from some states. I have also found that the remaining family did not like the way the family was portrayed in the book. I like to believe that the author had gotten the consent of Deborah when planning this book and that the things she included were important to her as a descendent of Henrietta. I like to think and I really hope that the authors intentions were true. I think this story is very important and one that must be more widely known. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Incest, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Mental illness