Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

63 reviews

bearikatherika's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Drug abuse, Incest, and Infidelity

marioncromb's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

Easy to read, very informative. Empathetic and meticulously researched. Tells the story of Lacks' family alternating with the story of her cells. Maybe a little long with unneccessary detail. Quite US centric - would have been nice to know about laws surrounding tissues etc worldwide for comparison.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Racism, Grief, Medical trauma, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

mallorypen's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I always worry that nonfiction books will be dry and boring, but I am delighted to be wrong with this - deeply disturbing in parts, heart wrenching in others, but with no lack of joy, this story was told in a delightfully human way. Rebecca Skloot took a TON of heavy and dense information and laid it out in an easy-to-follow way.

It surprised me that there aren’t any laws in the use of human cells yet; the ramifications of the scientific uses (and financial gains) were illustrated so thoroughly here that it feels ludicrous to not have addressed it by 2009. It’s my homework now to see if anything has changed now by 2023.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

arttichokedipp's review

challenging informative sad slow-paced

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

msoul13's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Sexism

aubreystrawberry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

jodean's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, and Kidnapping

emilymhb's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

Wow, wow, wow. I am not normally a nonfiction gal but this book blew me away. I am so thankful that I get to live in a world where HeLa cells were discovered, despite the personal cost her family incurred. This book was beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

crabbytaco's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Racism and Pregnancy

kk_gotit_goinon's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to go into science or medicine. The wrongs can't be undone but by bringing it to light we can create better scientists, doctors, and people in general. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Classism