Accessible Science

I am really enjoying The Immortal Like of Henrietta Lacks mainly because of the style in which it is written. I keep forgetting that I am reading nonfiction because the book reads so much like a novel. I enjoy the combination of science, narrative, and history that Skloot employs to give the reader the context behind Henrietta’s story.

It is so easy to reduce science to the most technical of details, but Henrietta Lacks doesn’t do that. It makes the biological information accessible to readers who are not trained scientists. The book also shows the humanity behind the science, something that is not often done in science writing. Instead of separating the human aspects and the scientific aspects of the story, Skloot presents both together in the book.