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A review by jocelynmaae
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
3.0
3.5⭐️
“‘I don't know how I'm going to go,’ she said. ‘I just hope it's nice and calm. But I tell you one thing, I don't want to be immortal if it mean living forever, cause then everybody else just die and get old in front of you while you stay the same, and that's just sad.’ Then she smiled. ‘But maybe I'll come back as some HeLa cells like my mother, that way we can do good together out there in the world.’ She paused and nodded again. ‘I think I'd like that.’"
I only liked part one and three of the book. The middle was too sciencey for myself.
But this damn fucking family. THEY COULD NEVER CATCH A FUCKING BREAK. It’s was genuinely one thing after another over and over again. But what truly breaks my heart is that Deborah went through years of helping Skloot write this book and she didn’t even get to read it. How fucking sad. At the start of this book I was over here thinking “damn. Imagine how fucking sad it would be to read this book as Deborah. Deborah who wanted to know nothing more than what her mother was like” AND OH MY GOD THE FUCKING EXPLOITATION‼️‼️ When I say that this family couldn’t catch a break, first it was stealing the cells, then it was not telling the family about the cells, then not calling Henrietta by her real name, then all the lies, then taking Henrietta’s children’s blood, then Cofield, and there are probably many more instances of which I’ve forgotten, but for the love all these people deserved was happiness and it couldn’t seem that they ever got that.
AND OH! Henrietta being treated by people who were not even doctors. What the fuck! One was expelled from the American Medical Association and the other didn’t even have a fucking medical license!? THATS SO FUCKED UP! ALL OF IT IS!? And on top of it they misdiagnosed her cancer and might have killed her with an overdose of radiation!? If I were in relation I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from all the anger dude.
Anyways, I was held at gun point (not really) by my AP lang teacher and forced to read this. Yay! It wasn’t that bad though I just hated that second part with all the scientific aspects.
“‘I don't know how I'm going to go,’ she said. ‘I just hope it's nice and calm. But I tell you one thing, I don't want to be immortal if it mean living forever, cause then everybody else just die and get old in front of you while you stay the same, and that's just sad.’ Then she smiled. ‘But maybe I'll come back as some HeLa cells like my mother, that way we can do good together out there in the world.’ She paused and nodded again. ‘I think I'd like that.’"
I only liked part one and three of the book. The middle was too sciencey for myself.
But this damn fucking family. THEY COULD NEVER CATCH A FUCKING BREAK. It’s was genuinely one thing after another over and over again. But what truly breaks my heart is that Deborah went through years of helping Skloot write this book and she didn’t even get to read it. How fucking sad. At the start of this book I was over here thinking “damn. Imagine how fucking sad it would be to read this book as Deborah. Deborah who wanted to know nothing more than what her mother was like” AND OH MY GOD THE FUCKING EXPLOITATION‼️‼️ When I say that this family couldn’t catch a break, first it was stealing the cells, then it was not telling the family about the cells, then not calling Henrietta by her real name, then all the lies, then taking Henrietta’s children’s blood, then Cofield, and there are probably many more instances of which I’ve forgotten, but for the love all these people deserved was happiness and it couldn’t seem that they ever got that.
AND OH! Henrietta being treated by people who were not even doctors. What the fuck! One was expelled from the American Medical Association and the other didn’t even have a fucking medical license!? THATS SO FUCKED UP! ALL OF IT IS!? And on top of it they misdiagnosed her cancer and might have killed her with an overdose of radiation!? If I were in relation I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from all the anger dude.
Anyways, I was held at gun point (not really) by my AP lang teacher and forced to read this. Yay! It wasn’t that bad though I just hated that second part with all the scientific aspects.