Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Goodreads: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black miad, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.


Kritters Thoughts: After all the hype, I had to take a bit before I read this one. When I heard the movie was coming out at the end of the summer, I knew I wanted to read it before the movie came out - so here it is.

Anyone who has not picked up this book - you are officially crazy. It does live up to all the hype! This complex story is told from three very different perspectives that help guide the story along its path. From 1962, a time when white women had help in their homes that consisted of black women that lived just beyond their privileged neighborhoods. The rare relationship that is formed between the women and between the help and the children of the home were written with perfect ease.

The relationship that Skeeter, Minny and Abileen form is unique. I loved how the story unfolded page by page. At first, I thought maybe the length was too much, but as I neared the end - I decided I was absolutely wrong. The length was perfect for the story that had to be told.

I would recommend this book to just about anyone. Of course, I think you should read it before the movie arrives in theaters in August.

Rating:absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Pages: 451

Cover Challenge April-June: Don't I Know You