Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

129 reviews

hanlov's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Classism

Moderate: Racism

danileah07's review

informative slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism and Grief

Minor: Incest and Medical content

loribreereads's review

challenging sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer

cj13's review

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring

4.5

"If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?"

This story is part history text, science text, and biographical story, that keeps the reader engaged. It's heartbreaking to read what the family went through in their lifetime, but the developing friendship between Deborah and Rebecca was inspiring and heartfelt to read.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault

oceanwriter's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Thanks to random YouTube rabbit holes, I was somewhat familiar with Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells going into this book. Had I realized there was a book at the time, I would have read this a lot sooner. 

 

The book discusses Henrietta Lacks’ life and death, the discovery of her extraordinary cells, the controversy surrounding the acquisition of those cells, and the author’s quest to make this woman known to the world. There’s also a great deal of focus on Henrietta’s children and the impact of her death and legacy on them. 

 

There’s a great mix of science and emotional family history. I do wish that the book had separated these things more, maybe telling Henrietta’s life all in one section before moving on to the author’s pursuit of her story (or vice versa). As it is, the first section of the book is back and forth from past to present. Thankfully, it smoothes out as the book goes on and the focus shifts to the present and her living children. 

 

Fascinating stuff here. It’s mind-blowing to me that anyone reading the book could access these cells at the click of a button. It breaks my heart that her family didn’t receive any of the revenue, especially when they had their own medical bills to pay. Even without the discovery of HeLa cells, their family story is one to be told. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Incest

tieflingmom's review

dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Incest, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

savannahsshelf's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

Initial read: June-July 2019 4.5⭐️
Reread January 2024 4.75-5⭐️

If you’re in science or medicine this is required reading. If you do research on people or human cells and haven’t read this… do that right now! 

Every single person reading this review had their life changed by Henrietta Lacks’ cells so you might as well read the book about her and them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, and Murder

eve81's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Racism

sztokfisz's review

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma