4.23 AVERAGE

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

Required reading for everyone!
emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

Required reading. it’s a deep dive into race, socioeconomics, medical ethics, and human cell cultures leading to massive societal advancements. But it’s ultimately about Henrietta Lacks and her tragic story. I think the human side of the story is the most important. I learned a lot and have a deeper appreciation for Henrietta Lacks, as we all should.

Wow! What an interesting story of how one ladies DNA can be used and re-used through many years and many experiments without their knowledge.
emotional informative reflective sad
challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

I really enjoyed "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." It was informative, interesting, and touching to see Rebecca and Deborah's journey to learning more about Henrietta's life, before, during and after the development of HeLa. 

The book covers a wide range of issues and topics, a positive and a negative in my opinion. All the pieces of information Skloot gives her reader provides a better overall story to piece together Henrietta's Life. There were quite a few characters who I lost along the way and had to flip back to figure out who they were in relation to Henrietta, but you come to learn that each of these people plays a pretty important role in Henrietta's life and the span of her cells. 

One of my major issues is that Henrietta's descendants still live in poverty, even after the publication of the book and subsequent HBO film. While reparations from Hopkins are well deserved, and quite frankly in my opinion, owed to the family, it's interesting to me that Skloot simply sets up a scholarship for Henrietta's descendants. She had direct contact with a great deal of Henrietta's family and while they're the only ones who can take advantage of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation scholarship, I wish more could be done for these people.


Overall, an incredibly interesting and engaging read. It is science heavy, but not beyond the scope of understanding. The race, science, and privacy issues raised in the life of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells will make you think and appreciate the laws in place now to protect your information.
informative reflective medium-paced
emotional informative sad medium-paced

Such a sad story but informative