Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

138 reviews

rebekah_l's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Medical content

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

colinnixon's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Racism, and Medical content

dar101's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

betttyy8's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest

kennedybullen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, 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: 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.

charlotttemare's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse

jcstokes95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

3.5

If you are currently in a multi-year pandemic situation where medical advice feels slippery and the policy even slipperier, I would not advise reading this. Because, it will make you feel even more suspicious of doctors. I love science, super glad to have it, doctors and nurses save lives. But also, I have to admit, I do not always trust them. I live in a body that is often overlooked by the medical profession. And while I immensely respect medical professionals, I do not believe in following anything blindly. And man, does this book lay out every potential horror that can happen if you are unable to make educated choices about your health due to racism, classism, etc. 

Truly, this book is horror after horror. But I feel like I gained an even clearer understanding of the racial bias in the medical system. And the incredible importance of patient consent, which still seems to be an issue in regards to tissue ownership. Skloot does a very good job giving you digestible chunks of medical history. I found the portions about the Lacks family very hard to read. This book was very slow for me because there is only so much sexual abuse, racism, incest, death, etc. that I could take at a time. But I appreciate that Skloot doesn't seem to shy away from the hard truths about the family. Like them or not though, every person has a right to consent and every family has a right to privacy in their medical dealings. Neither of these was given to this family. 

The part in this book that wavers for me is the last portion. I don't mind Skloot inserting herself into the narrative, but I found a lot of the focus on Deborah's health to be difficult to read, and not additive. I also do think there are some weird ethical implications of taking a person that fragile and pushing them to do traumatic work. Particularly when you are White and will profit directly, and they are Black and will not. But, the Lacks family seems to trust her and I am glad in some way they felt they had a champion to tell the story for them. A mixed bag and a hard read, but I feel I learned something new in every part.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, and Medical content