Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

60 reviews

franklola's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Pregnancy

amcghig's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

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

Minor: Incest

abookandaspotoftea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

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

mandi4886's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

booksjessreads's review against another edition

5.0

What. A. Book. This is genuinely one of my favourite books ever.  This book tells the life story of Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa) who's 'Immortal cancer cells' were used to test treatments for polio, helped discover HIV, and helped us find out that transplanted organs are rejected in a new body by the immune system and not because of different DNA. Her cells still live today.

Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black woman with 5 children when she died from cervical cancer. Howard Jones, her doctor, took a sample of her cancer without her knowledge or consent and shipped it off to a lab where it kept growing and growing. Researchers took advantage of this, but kept Henrietta's family in the dark about medical research taking place because of her.

Rebecca Skloot tells this story so amazingly. Half of the book is Skloot telling us how she acquired the information about Henrietta, and the other half is telling us about Henrietta's life, all combined to make the book. Skloot does the story justice, showing the hardship the family faced in light of all the secrets kept from them. She talks about the ethics of taking cells without consent, the crippling racism the family faced in 1950s America, and centre's the voices of the family and Henrietta, rather than imposing her own narrative throughout the story.

A side note that half of the proceeds of the book go to Henrietta's family. The family didn't receive a single penny of the medical research or sales of Henrietta's cells, so if you ever get a chance to read the book, I encourage you to buy it (if you didn't need encouraging enough!)

Honestly such an incredible read and certainly one of my absolute favourites this year! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse