_jean_ 's review for:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

5.0

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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So good. I don’t know much about bio stuff so I wasn’t familiar with HeLa cells before this but this book was so compelling. I really liked how the author spent so much time and care to know the family and tell their story. She also really balanced the nuances of “this research is important and has really extreme benefits” and “this woman and her family have been exploited” so well and really draws to attention that like informed consent is important and people whose bodies have been used to change medical research forever, shouldn’t have children suffering from ailments because they can’t afford healthcare. Overall so interesting to read about both the medical and personal history. Highly recommend to everyone