Efficient, Occasionally Lyrical
Skloot has two main jobs to do in this book: telling the story of the Lacks family and explaining the development of HeLa cells and their use in scientific research. For the most part, the writing style is pretty matter-of-fact and informative when discussing the science, but she manages to keep it engaging rather than dry and boring. For example:
All it takes is one small mistake anywhere in the division process for cells to start growing out of control, he told us. Just one enzyme misfiring, just one wrong protein activation, and you could have cancer. Mitosis goes haywire, which is how it spreads. (3)
But there are moments when she lets loose and gets poetic, especially when discussing the personal stories of the family. Witness these rhetorical fireworks after she watches Gary's faith healing:
If you believe the Bible is the literal truth, the immortality of Henrietta's cells makes perfect sense. Of course they were growing and surviving decades after her death, of course they floated through the air, and of course they'd led to cures for diseases and been launched into space. Angels are like that. The Bible tells us so. (296)
We think she strikes just the right balance: "brains and heart," as the New York Times reviewer said.