Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

140 reviews

cj13's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring

4.5

"If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?"

This story is part history text, science text, and biographical story, that keeps the reader engaged. It's heartbreaking to read what the family went through in their lifetime, but the developing friendship between Deborah and Rebecca was inspiring and heartfelt to read.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault

oceanwriter's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Thanks to random YouTube rabbit holes, I was somewhat familiar with Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells going into this book. Had I realized there was a book at the time, I would have read this a lot sooner. 

 

The book discusses Henrietta Lacks’ life and death, the discovery of her extraordinary cells, the controversy surrounding the acquisition of those cells, and the author’s quest to make this woman known to the world. There’s also a great deal of focus on Henrietta’s children and the impact of her death and legacy on them. 

 

There’s a great mix of science and emotional family history. I do wish that the book had separated these things more, maybe telling Henrietta’s life all in one section before moving on to the author’s pursuit of her story (or vice versa). As it is, the first section of the book is back and forth from past to present. Thankfully, it smoothes out as the book goes on and the focus shifts to the present and her living children. 

 

Fascinating stuff here. It’s mind-blowing to me that anyone reading the book could access these cells at the click of a button. It breaks my heart that her family didn’t receive any of the revenue, especially when they had their own medical bills to pay. Even without the discovery of HeLa cells, their family story is one to be told. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Incest

tieflingmom's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Incest, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

summeryoder's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

 Reading Henrietta Lacks' story makes me feel that I am simultaneously honoring her memory and violating her privacy. 

  "But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Scientists had been trying to keep human cells alive in culture for decades, but they all eventually died. Henrietta's were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal
human cells ever grown in a laboratory." 

 Henrietta Lacks never knew that her tissues had been taken for research. She never found out that her cells were used to study cancer, to formulate the polio vaccine, or that they were sent into outer space. 
 Her family didn't find out for over 20 years and the discovery put them on a journey of confusion and pain. 

 "When I go to the doctor for my checkups I always say my mother was HeLa. They get all excited, tell me stuff like how her cells helped make my blood pressure medicines and antidepression pills and how all this important stuff in science happen cause of her. But they don't never explain more than just sayin, Yeah, your mother was on the moon, she been in nuclear bombs and made that polio vaccine. I really don't know how she did all that, but I guess I'm glad she did, cause that mean she helpin lots of people. I think she would like that." -Deborah Lacks as told to Rebecca Skloot 

 Meticulously researched, this book gives much food for thought on the topics of racism, medical ethics, grief, trauma, and more. It's not a feel-good read, but it's an important one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcoholism

pamnc's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Medical content

Moderate: Incest

savannahsshelf's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

Initial read: June-July 2019 4.5⭐️
Reread January 2024 4.75-5⭐️

If you’re in science or medicine this is required reading. If you do research on people or human cells and haven’t read this… do that right now! 

Every single person reading this review had their life changed by Henrietta Lacks’ cells so you might as well read the book about her and them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, and Murder

sztokfisz's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

osteele98's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

beccaj11's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Slavery and Suicide