The Help: Book Review

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

 

I first read The Help two summers ago, when everyone was talking about it. Talking about how good the book was. How different. And they were right, this was one of those books I read from start to finish, hardly putting it down at all. Being raised in the south, and knowing families personally who had maids similar to ones in The Help, this story was one that both intrigued and fascinated me.

 

The voices of the characters are so authentic and real, you can't help but feel what they are feeling, as if you are really part of the story. If you've never read the book or seen the movie, the story is told from the points of view of three women: Skeeter, a young white woman who has just returned home after finishing college; Abiline, an older black woman who works as a maid and caretaker of a white family with young children, and Minnie, a fiery (sometimes outspoken) black woman who was fired from her previous job, and newly hired by the towns newest scandal of a woman.

 

 

Skeeter, an aspiring writer, convinces Abileen and Minnie to share their stories and secrets of working for white families. The three women, along with many more maids from Jackson, Mississippi, compose a novel filled with stories you wouldn't believe.

 

Filled with tension, excitement, sadness, and triumph, The Help truly is a great novel about women coming together, despite their differences, to create something beautiful, shocking, and great. It is a book I would recommend to all. Not to mention, the movie based on the novel is phenomenal!

  

My favorite line: "Oh honey, no husband wants to come home to see that."

 

What were your thoughts on The Help?