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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??? 😅😅😅
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??? 😅😅😅
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
girlypop_sgr's review against another edition
5.0
This is by far one of my favorite books - the characters, the story, the emotion that this novel is filled with. I think it is an incredibly honest take on the South during the early Civil Rights era.
cassischapter's review against another edition
5.0
That was such an heartfelt book that left me constantly thinking about it when I was reading. Honestly makes me proud of the progress we’ve gone through but still upset that things like this still do happen today unfortunately. This is an important book for anyone to read honestly.
feralsouffle's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
waylintaylin's review against another edition
5.0
I reallly, really liked this. The movie followed it perfectly, it's amazing.
kawther_ar's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
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? It's complicated
4.75
odin45mp's review against another edition
3.0
Read as part of my library's Libraryopoly challenge, I pulled this from the Chance box.
This is definitely outside my normal reading tastes. It is well written and fairly respectful to its subject matter, but I feel that it shied away from some of the more brutal excesses of life in the South in the early days of the civil rights movement - some brutality is mentioned off camera, but aside from one character doesn't seem to really touch the characters, and thus this reader. I struggled more than once with the African American dialect having been written by a white woman, that is a personal stumbling block and not an indictment of Stockett's prose.
The story itself feels small "i" impactful in what it is setting out to do, and it does it well. We follow the lives of women in Jackson, MI, 2 black, 1 white, and how they together end up telling the stories of "The Help", the black women who work as maids for the wealthy white women in town. Small town politics, small town gossip, small town sticking-noses-in-other-peoples'-business made me want to give up reading it more than once because I. Don't. Care. And frankly they shouldn't either, it isn't the end of the world like they think it is. But I stuck with it and the story and characters were entertaining and sometimes touching, but this is not something I would normally read and doubt I will ever read again.
This is definitely outside my normal reading tastes. It is well written and fairly respectful to its subject matter, but I feel that it shied away from some of the more brutal excesses of life in the South in the early days of the civil rights movement - some brutality is mentioned off camera, but aside from one character doesn't seem to really touch the characters, and thus this reader. I struggled more than once with the African American dialect having been written by a white woman, that is a personal stumbling block and not an indictment of Stockett's prose.
The story itself feels small "i" impactful in what it is setting out to do, and it does it well. We follow the lives of women in Jackson, MI, 2 black, 1 white, and how they together end up telling the stories of "The Help", the black women who work as maids for the wealthy white women in town. Small town politics, small town gossip, small town sticking-noses-in-other-peoples'-business made me want to give up reading it more than once because I. Don't. Care. And frankly they shouldn't either, it isn't the end of the world like they think it is. But I stuck with it and the story and characters were entertaining and sometimes touching, but this is not something I would normally read and doubt I will ever read again.
librarianinperiwinkle's review against another edition
5.0
It took me a while to adjust to reading the written dialect/accent of Aibilene and Minny, but once I got going, I fell in love with this book. The characters felt like real people--even Hilly wasn't a one-dimensional villain. I was never entirely sure where the story would lead, not even when I guessed a bit of someone's secrets here or there. I had a hard time putting the book down at the end of my lunch breaks because I wanted to find out what happened next.
I kept wanting to put everyone in a room and make them TALK to each other and see how artificial and arbitrary their differences were, founded on ignorance and prejudice. (I especially wanted Minny to talk to Miss Celia.) But then, I was born more than a decade after this book took place and in an entirely different part of the country. I have very little personal experience with racial prejudice. Or domestic help, for that matter! :) I don't know how I would have handled the cruelty and shameful miscarriages of justice. Would I have been brave enough to risk my life to challenge the hateful status quo? It's really amazing to me just how far we've come in a generation. To have improved that much gives me hope that we will be able to continue the progress into--and beyond--the next generation.
For Reader's Advisors: story and character doorways, with setting also pretty important.
I kept wanting to put everyone in a room and make them TALK to each other and see how artificial and arbitrary their differences were, founded on ignorance and prejudice. (I especially wanted Minny to talk to Miss Celia.) But then, I was born more than a decade after this book took place and in an entirely different part of the country. I have very little personal experience with racial prejudice. Or domestic help, for that matter! :) I don't know how I would have handled the cruelty and shameful miscarriages of justice. Would I have been brave enough to risk my life to challenge the hateful status quo? It's really amazing to me just how far we've come in a generation. To have improved that much gives me hope that we will be able to continue the progress into--and beyond--the next generation.
For Reader's Advisors: story and character doorways, with setting also pretty important.
min_angele's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
4.0