The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By Rebecca Skloot
Publication Year: 2010
Type: Non-fiction
Genre: science, medicine, biography
Read on 2018-06-23
View additional specs on this book in Muhan’s 2018 Reading Survey ➞
★★★☆☆
A incredible (and true) story that the world needs to know. Henrietta Lacks is literally the only thing I’ve been talking about since I started this book. Please do yourself a favor and read this.
The writing and reporting was mostly very good, but I found the jumping back and forth between 3+ timelines quite confusing. The division of sections was also rather inelegant.
The research Rebecca Skloot did for this project is extraordinary in depth and breadth, but the most important component of her telling of this story is how much she lends herself to being a mouthpiece for the Lacks family while also not erasing her hand. Her relationship with Deborah and the other Lacks’s is an extraordinary tale in and of itself, making this book not just a story about Henrietta or her cells, but a sweeping decades-long epic reaching into medical research history as well as the lasting impact of important personal and familial relationships.
