First book review of 2013: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By: Rebecca Skloot

Genre: nonfiction

Pages: 370

Published: 2010

Read: January

Stars: 4 out of 5

This nonfiction novel is truly eye-opening with an amazing personal touch. The reader doesn't need to be a biology enthusiast to enjoy the impact of this book. The story is focused on the opinions of Henrietta’s children and how they discovered that doctors have been keeping their mother’s cells alive for 20 years before her own children discovered this very fact. You will be enthralled with the voice of Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter. Henrietta had another daughter, but she was institutionalized. Skloot entwined the facts of the scientific methods developed and the illnesses the HeLa cells cured with the personal facts of Henrietta and her family’s story of their growing up, mostly without the present of their mother due to her early death. While Skloot has written many works of literature this is her first and only novel thus far. I would love to see more from her in the future.

Rebecca Skloot's website is www.rebeccaskloot.com