This was a total kindle impulse buy. Oh yeah, I have a Kindle. I received it as a gift and I absolutely love it. It’s one of those things I would never buy for myself, but it’s been one of the most amazing gifts I have ever received.

So I was hopping around some bestseller lists and I saw this book. This is where my bit of confusion started. I, almost exclusively, read fiction. I rarely pick up a book that is non-fiction. Apparently I was looking in the wrong places, because I ignorantly read through the whole book thinking it was fiction. Looking back there were some signs, like citations of scientific journals and photographs of the “characters”. I think more than anything this just goes to show I read some really weird fiction, because there is fiction that cites fake sources and has photos of the characters. I have read that fiction. After I finished the book and saw the giant appendix and citation pages, I slapped myself back into reality. I had read a non fiction book of the science genre. I stand in awe of myself even now.

The book is about an African American women who in the fifties contracts ovarian cancer. She has this cancer removed at John Hopkins and the cancer cells from her tumor were the first in history that were able to be cultivated and reproduce naturally in a lab environment.  This was a monumental scientific breakthrough and before you knew it these cells were sent around the world and were being using in labs all over the globe. These cells actually made the polio vaccine possible, they have also aided the the research and development of medicine in hundreds of applications.

Henrietta died several years after her first cells began multiplying, neither her or her children ever knew that these cells were being used or that they were making labs and pharmaceutical companies a heathly profit. All the while Henrietta’s family was in the dark, impoverished, and without medical care.

This book weaves together the story of Henrietta, her children and the ethics of cell science and research.  It also tells the stories of her family members and others who have been left in the dark about what their own bodies have done to further science and other’s pocket books.

And for those who fear the non-fiction science genre, I can only reiterate my own ignorance, and say that it read like a novel. It is a great piece of literature, one that is worthy of transcending the science category. Beautifully written, the author Rebecca spent years compassionately trying to tell this story. Chasing down paranoid family members, risking her own well being for the sake of finding out the truth and telling the family what they should have known all along.

I give this book two enthusiastic thumbs up, I’m quite glad I accidentally found it.

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