Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

18 reviews

k_winchester's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

I know I'm like a decade and half 'late' to this book but here we finally are. 😂 

Call it 3.5???? I guess???

Tbh, very conflicted on how to rate this. I really enjoyed reading it overall - it drew me in, I really enjoyed reading so much of it and found myself thinking about it a lot while I wasn't reading it and staying up waaay too late to read just a little bit more. There's alot of beautiful parts and beautiful things here.

But... there were also a lot of problematic things (not even counting the extremely problematic things I've now seen about the book and author - which I didn't know before/somehow missed when this book first came out and was crazy popular). But problematic things that I noticed like... pretty well every female black character is described as being large/fat. (Like there's no other body type for a black woman? If one was described, I missed it.) The way the language was written/the flow for Abileen and Minny was initially a little hard to get into, but once I got it, it was unique and interesting HOWEVER when I realized the author was a white lady (again, didn't know this going into reading or if i did know once upon a time, have since forgot) and it felt reallllly not okay for a white woman to be doing that. There was also a bit of a white savior element to the story at several points, which again was reallllly not great to see. Among some other technically "smaller" things that nonetheless made me go "yikes". 

Without writing an entire essay (...too late? 🙃) there was *a lot* to appreciate, enjoy, empathize, laugh, have deep heartbreak over, and a lot of really good message that I can't discount - I actually loved a lot of it (hence the higher rating). BUT there were also a lot of Not Good things - mainly being that a privileged white lady is the one presenting them, which is sooooo YIKES - that I absolutely can't discount that either.

I guess... split the difference, and call it a tentative, super conflicted 3.5, I guess??? 😅😅😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, Death, and Excrement

rchulin1's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Grief, Sexism, Violence, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical content, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Classism, Racism, Self harm, Chronic illness, Body horror, Alcohol, and Blood

purplehulk713's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny remind me of all of the lines that I want to cross that I am either afraid to or cannot given my own conscience. Their surreptitious journey to express their very real struggles is so inspiring, frustrating, and heartbreaking. You will all grow to hate Hilly Holbrook just as much as I did. You hate her initially, but trust me. Each of the three women narrators seems to embody a different witness at this time, and this book (in the sense of the reader’s novel and the book that the characters are writing) is their testimony. They are testifying to the fact that 

There is so much you don't know about a person. I wonder if I could've made her days a little bit easier, if I’d tried. If I’d treated her a little nicer. Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.

Taking care of someone means recognizing who someone is completely—where they come from, how they grew up, and how they relate to themselves and others because of that. We can’t place our own desires before the people we take care of or project our own needs, desires, or expectations upon them because that would reject their personhood to assume that our needs and expectations are worth more. The lines are not there, we draw them every day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Child death, Excrement, Racism, Pregnancy, Grief, and Hate crime

ihavecoolhats6's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Violence, Pregnancy, Cancer, Blood, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Excrement and Vomit

jhbandcats's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was really hard for me to read because I grew up in the Jim Crow South and so much of the story was familiar in a shameful way. The author is masterful at telling a painful but hopeful tale of relationships between white employers and Black housekeepers at a time when all the power was on one side of the equation. 

The story is compelling and funny and awful all at the same time. The characters, even the minor ones, are fully developed. Some are despicable and some are lovable, some are angry or timid or miserable or hopeful, and all are given a voice. 

That was such a terrible period in America and I’m appalled and frightened by the resurgence of racist fear mongering. Like most books that teach an important lesson about humanity, this is likely to be read by the people who need it least and not at all by the people it would benefit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Cancer, Classism, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

bootrat's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Terminal illness

Minor: Hate crime, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Excrement

atalea's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Hate crime, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, Self harm, Vomit, and Infidelity

cubbykay's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A wonderful book that tackles important issues with characters that feel very real. They are at once as infuriating as they are completely loveable.  One must wonder though if this book was appropriate for Stockett to write. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Excrement

jg34's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Miscarriage, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Physical abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

kate_has_book_thoughts's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, Infertility, Excrement, Blood, Physical abuse, Grief, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Hate crime, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Police brutality, Sexism, Classism, and Gun violence