Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Book:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Sloot © 2010, Rebecca Sloot

The Review:

Before we can even discuss this book, I have to divulge some information about myself which may lead you to call me a dork. Basically, I’m that person who took extra science classes in high school not because she wanted to go into a scientific field, but because she liked biology. I took advanced biology because I thought (and still do) biology was cool—and you also got to dissect all kinds of animals, from earthworms to fetal pigs.

I’m one of those people who still likes to learn. I’m still amazed by science and how the body works and all the intricacies of life on earth. So, I guess it’s fortunate for me that one of my good friends is a biology professor at a local university and knows I enjoy learning, so she often tells me interesting facts or stories. Several months ago, she started telling me about HeLa cells and how they were developed. Basically, HeLa cells are one of the oldest cell lines used in cell research. They were developed from cervical cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman who died shortly thereafter. Her immortal line of cells have lived longer now than she did—and have traveled into space, were vital in developing the polio vaccine, and have played a role in all kinds of research that have led to therapies and treatments for cancer and other maladies. It was an incredibly interesting conversation.

So for Christmas, she gave me a book, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I laughed out loud, remembering our conversation and wondered if the book could be as good as she said. I’m not going to lie: I didn’t expect much, but decided to read it because she’d given it to me.

But I was wrong. This book is incredibly interesting and I often found myself reading it for hours, just wanting to know what happened next, which is not usually something that happens to me when I’m reading non-fiction. Written in a journalistic style and well-researched, this book is focused on telling both the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family and HeLa cells and science. It’s such an incredible juxtaposition to realize as you read this book that while Henrietta’s cells were making great things possible in science and medicine, Henrietta’s family was so poor they couldn’t afford health insurance.

Skloot’s book is worth the read if you’re even remotely interested in science. Skloot takes the time to tell Henrietta’s story in the most thorough way possible, a fitting tribute to a woman whose name was virtually unknown for many years while her cells made much of modern research possible. At the same time, the book raises some interesting questions about cells, research, and who has control over our tissues once they’re taken from our bodies. The true beauty of Skloot’s book though, is her ability to make science readable for non-scientists while making sure the human experience is the story that comes to the forefront in the end.

I wouldn’t have ever picked this book on my own, but I’m so glad I read it—and got to meet Henrietta Lacks and her children along the way!