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odie192's review against another edition
5.0
It is a truly amazing book. It raised a lot of questions about ethics and respecting the families' decisions in donating cells in this books case to science. Highly recommend this book.
phenomquant's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
isabelbrieler's review against another edition
2.0
the story of henrietta and her family's lives and the science that surrounds it is fascinating BUT i could not stop thinking about how incredibly uncomfortable it was to read this author's own self-report of the months-long harassment of the lacks family she undertook before she was finally able to interview them. it's weird that she wanted to write a book about the exploitation of this woman but went about the research by, by her own admission, calling and paging and just showing up on their doorsteps every day for months as they tried to fend her off by either telling her they didn't want to talk or ignoring her
wyvernfriend's review against another edition
5.0
The story flips between the 1950s of Henrietta Lacks and the late 1990s early 2000s of the authors quest to find the story behind the cells that are so important to modern science, particularly medicine.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer in the south. A woman who was sure something was wrong but was ignored at first, and her cells harvested for what she thought was a test about her cancer but turned out to be part of a project to try to get cells to grow. Her cells turned out to be perfect, actually almost too perfect, they are actually invading other cultures!
She died of the cancer, her cells have gone on to be a multi-million dollar industry and her family have never seen anything from it, not even healthcare to any meaningful degree, all they've seen really has been things that have convinced them that indeed the medical industry in the US is discriminatory and cares more about the relationship they have with their famous mother's cells than about them.
It's an indictment of the way people are treated and a sad comment on how one woman, poor, black and ill-treated by life, was so failed during her life but has given so much back to science. A woman they even forgot or called by the wrong name for years. A woman who should never be forgotten.
It's worth the read, even if there are some cringeworthy moments with Henrietta's Daughter Deborah but it does say a lot about the life Henrietta must have led. We can only hope that she will remain remembered and maybe, just maybe, achieve some sort of immortality outside her cells.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer in the south. A woman who was sure something was wrong but was ignored at first, and her cells harvested for what she thought was a test about her cancer but turned out to be part of a project to try to get cells to grow. Her cells turned out to be perfect, actually almost too perfect, they are actually invading other cultures!
She died of the cancer, her cells have gone on to be a multi-million dollar industry and her family have never seen anything from it, not even healthcare to any meaningful degree, all they've seen really has been things that have convinced them that indeed the medical industry in the US is discriminatory and cares more about the relationship they have with their famous mother's cells than about them.
It's an indictment of the way people are treated and a sad comment on how one woman, poor, black and ill-treated by life, was so failed during her life but has given so much back to science. A woman they even forgot or called by the wrong name for years. A woman who should never be forgotten.
It's worth the read, even if there are some cringeworthy moments with Henrietta's Daughter Deborah but it does say a lot about the life Henrietta must have led. We can only hope that she will remain remembered and maybe, just maybe, achieve some sort of immortality outside her cells.
konvineo's review against another edition
4.0
I'm very happy that I finally got around to reading this book, but I do think it's a hard book to put a rating on. On one hand I think it's very important to know about people like Henrietta Lacks (especially since I used to study biotechnology and biology, and I'm pretty sure I encountered the word HeLa). On the other hand I think it's not quite right that this book was written by a white woman. It doesn't hit right when reading, and I feel that it at some points in the point that there might be a lack of context. The author does talk about her being white telling a black family's story in the book, so there's that. Also, I'm at a 50/50 split in terms of actually liking the way Skloot writes.
That said, onto other thought on the book.
Fundamentally, I'm grateful for reading the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. I'm also of the opinion that in cases such this the family deserve to be paid some kind of royalties for the use of their wife/mother's tissues. I know US law doesn't allow ownership by a "donor" of tissues, but I think I'm on the side that says that should kind of be a thing. If we bypass the ownership because current laws, then I think another argument for royalties to the Lacks family would be the missing anonymity, and because of that researchers around the world potentially know a lot about the Lackses. Also, I think royalties would be in order as reparations for what the family went through, because they were treated awful.
How some doctor or researcher that came into contact with the family didn't puzzle out that the family didn't understand what happened to Henrietta is beyond me. I know "times were different", but later on, the fact that noone didn't sit down and talk the family through everything frustrates me on the family's behalf. The fact that Deborah (Henrietta's daughter) walked around for years fearing she'd get sick like her mother, because doctors didn't talk to her is deplorable. Doctors need to communicate with their patients, and they need to communicate until everybody understands what's going on.
I am on the side of science, but you still treat people like people. Doctors should inform patients or participants in experiments about what is happening. The fact that some of the doctors, who came into contact with the Lackses, didn't really seem all that sorry about how they handled it, pisses me off. The worst thing I read was what Dr. Susan Hsu said. She starts her message to the family okay, what with talking about Henrietta's contribution to science, but she totally lost me when she ended with science has come far, so your family is welcome to come in, and we can take another blood sample for testing. That feels so tone deaf and ignorant, and I seriously hope that it's a language barrier that makes it sound so awful.
Anyway, I'm happy to know a lot more about Henrietta and her family, and the book has made me want to know more about the Tuskegee experiments, because that's another important story.
That said, onto other thought on the book.
Fundamentally, I'm grateful for reading the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. I'm also of the opinion that in cases such this the family deserve to be paid some kind of royalties for the use of their wife/mother's tissues. I know US law doesn't allow ownership by a "donor" of tissues, but I think I'm on the side that says that should kind of be a thing. If we bypass the ownership because current laws, then I think another argument for royalties to the Lacks family would be the missing anonymity, and because of that researchers around the world potentially know a lot about the Lackses. Also, I think royalties would be in order as reparations for what the family went through, because they were treated awful.
How some doctor or researcher that came into contact with the family didn't puzzle out that the family didn't understand what happened to Henrietta is beyond me. I know "times were different", but later on, the fact that noone didn't sit down and talk the family through everything frustrates me on the family's behalf. The fact that Deborah (Henrietta's daughter) walked around for years fearing she'd get sick like her mother, because doctors didn't talk to her is deplorable. Doctors need to communicate with their patients, and they need to communicate until everybody understands what's going on.
I am on the side of science, but you still treat people like people. Doctors should inform patients or participants in experiments about what is happening. The fact that some of the doctors, who came into contact with the Lackses, didn't really seem all that sorry about how they handled it, pisses me off. The worst thing I read was what Dr. Susan Hsu said. She starts her message to the family okay, what with talking about Henrietta's contribution to science, but she totally lost me when she ended with science has come far, so your family is welcome to come in, and we can take another blood sample for testing. That feels so tone deaf and ignorant, and I seriously hope that it's a language barrier that makes it sound so awful.
Anyway, I'm happy to know a lot more about Henrietta and her family, and the book has made me want to know more about the Tuskegee experiments, because that's another important story.
jbalserait310's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting, thought-provoking, and hard to rate. At times this read like a science textbook.
laurenisallbooked's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
This book was incredible. At times, it was very dense with scientific research and principals. It wasn't inaccessible, but it was something that slowed down the reading pace and required some googling. I highly recommend this read.
This book was incredible. At times, it was very dense with scientific research and principals. It wasn't inaccessible, but it was something that slowed down the reading pace and required some googling. I highly recommend this read.
maia_with_an_i's review against another edition
4.0
Just finished this audiobook! What a riveting story! I will admit that it was hard listening to the parts that were science heavy (I think I would have had a better grasp on the information if I was able to read along as well 😬), and I became uneasy when the narrator was speaking in different accents and dialects to match the book's characters. I am aware that is in the nature of audiobooks, but I still felt squirmy (which is why I gave it 4 stars). Overall, it was a wonderful book and I'm glad I had the chance to listen to it!