Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

35 reviews

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

kermitcaroline's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

I was not expecting this book to be so great. Very informative about the life of Henrietta and her children. This is a must read for anyone in STEM research 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Racism, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

micklesreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This book was fascinating and really centered the Lacks family, which I loved. I sometimes felt like the descriptions of Deborah were exploitative; I would like to have seen more nuance there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

eegrasse's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Classism

allisonmaier's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

zams's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

English: Definitly the best book I've read so far.
The telling of the stories as well as  the presentation of the researched data was incredible. As somebody who only learned English as a 2nd language I was a little nervous about the presence of authentic language, but it made the whole bok just a lot more real and therefor enjoyable.
An absolutely outstanding work by everybody that contributed. This is not just a book about science but also one that transfers heavy emotins right through the pages.

Deutsch:  Definitiv eines der besten Bücher die ich bisher gelesen habe.
Das Erzähle der Geschichten genauso wie die Präsentation der gesammelten Daten sind unvergleichlich.
Ich hatte zuerst etwas Respekt vor der Tatsache dass authentische Sprache in dem Buch verwendet wird, allerdings war das Verständnis absolut kein Problem, und gab der Geschichte das gewisse etwas, dass sie so persönlich macht. Ich weiß nicht wie diese Parts in der deutschen Übersetzung wirken.
Definitv eine herausragende Arbeit von allen, die daran mitgewirkt haben. 
Nicht nur ein Buch über Wissenschaft, sondern auch eines dass es schafft, heftige Emotionen durch die Seiten zum Leser zu transportieren.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction

allygogo's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

thebrainglitter's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

martha_is_reading's review against another edition

I was enjoying the book and found the history of the HeLa cells fascinating; while the treatment of Henrietta Lacks and her family was sad to listen to. I would have carried on but about a quarter of the way through there were a lot of graphic descriptions of the physical and sexual violence that Henrietta’s children were subjected to after her death and I just found it too much 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

grboph's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I had to read part of this book as part of a project on bioethics for an anatomy and physiology class, but it was so interesting and well-written that I decided to read the entire thing. I'm very glad I did!! The story of Henrietta Lacks, her cells, and her family is a very fascinating one, and Skloot tells it very well. I really liked that she included herself as a secondary "character" in the book - this served to make the rest of the events of the story and the people she met seem more real because her interactions with them were documented. I learned so much from reading this book about cell biology, genetics, bioethics and its history, medical racism, and so many other things. It's very important this book exists, as it tells the story of a woman whose life affects everybody (due to how ubiquitous HeLa cells are) and how the way she was treated by Johns Hopkins doctors affected her and her family. It also raises a lot of very important points about informed consent and financial compensation, and how attitudes about these things have shifted over time. This was a very informative and well-crafted book, and I would recommend it to just about anyone, but especially anybody who is interested in medicine, biology, and bioethics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, and Pregnancy