The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books, 2009

443 pages, Kindle Edition

Date Finished: 30/8/2011

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adult, Romance

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-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 has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, 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.
~from goodreads.com~

~First Line: "Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960."
~Last Line: "Cause just last night I thought I was finished with everything new."

Review: I first hear that this book was really good from my teachers last year. Then I heard about the movie, which I still haven't been to see :(. But anyway, I'm glad I finally read it!

We have three main characters: Minny and Aibileen, who are African American maids, and Skeeter, an aspiring writer. I'm really not sure which one is my favorite charrie. They're all so well written. Every time I finsihed a chapter, I felt like I just lived through everything the characters did.

The plot of this book was really good, too. I loved how Aibileen expressed her love fror Mae Mobley (her employer's daughter). She was always trying to teach her the right things, and not to judge anyone on how they look or the colour of their skin. I wished that there were more of her in the book.

Minny, oh, Minny. I loved her character so so much. She didn't take crao from anybody. Well, except her husband sometimes, I think. But that would've been the only time. Sad to say, the only way Leroy would stop beating on her was if she was pregnant. But anyhoo, she doesn't let people into her life very often, so when she does, you should consider yourself very privileged to be one of her most trustworthy friends.

Miss Skeeter was kind of simple to me, but in a good way. She was a simple girl who wanted to be educated and do something big. I think she accomplished her goal. Skeeter doesn't like the way the maids are being treated by their employers, two of which being her best friends. But what can she say? They don't work for her, and people would talk if they knew she was taking their side. And that could be dangerous.

So in the end, she writes a book with 12 maids that live in JAckson, Mississippi. In secret, of course. But soon everyone was saying the book was amazing and funny, and it was even on their local talk show. I really would've liked to be able to read Skeeter's book. Especially the story about Hilly :).

Overall, The Help is a great book. I'm super-anxious for the movie to come out on DVD so that I can indulge myself in it!

Plot Rating: 5
Character Rating: 5
Cover Rating: 4
GoodReads Rating: 5

Overall rating:
and three-fourths :)