Really interesting at the start, but quickly starts to retread ground as it starts with the authors story and then jumps to specific years pertaining to the cells taken and how science used them, what was going on, and then paralleling it to what the family was thinking, finally bookending it with the author personal material stuff again. It retreads a heck of a lot for no real reason, as the family more-or-less thought the exact same thing the entire time.

There were specific developments, sure, such as when the misunderstood tissue samples taken from them was to be used to make sure they did not have the same cancer as Henrietta—but there is a heck of a lot of superfluous material here. I guess it paces out some of the more dramatic information, but it muddies the information design overall, heavily. It is certainly infuriating that researchers didn’t even deign to educate the family until many years later, to the point where urban legends emerged about the cells. But I do not need to constantly be told that X family member still had no idea while X thing was happening with the development of the cells in whatever decade. Both sides of the story would have been much better consumed with different organization, imo.

I also found the author adventure parts not as interesting as the push/pull between patient autonomy over their body and the advancement and direction that resulted from the notion that informed consent was not a thing until recently, and still what that even currently covers. Still enjoyed this, though. And think it more successful than not.