The Help Book Review

Summary: 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.

Review: I first read The Help cause I saw the movie and really liked it. What can I say, I love Emma Stone. As much as I liked the movie though, the book was way better.

At first I wasn’t sure if I would like how it was written. The Abileen and Minny chapters were written how they would actually talk. Usually I find that really annoying in books, but in this one I think it really worked – it gave you more insight into the characters.

The characters were definitely the driving force behind this book. As interesting as the plot was, it was the characters that I really cared about. Having chapters from all three main characters’ point of view was awesome. You understood more about them by seeing things through their eyes.

It’s absolutely shocking to think that the horrible, racist things that were described in this book actually happened – and not all that long ago. While I know there’s lots of racism in the world right now, it was still shocking to read about.

While it’s not great literature, it’s a fun quick read about what life was like in one small town in Mississippi in the ‘60’s. If you enjoyed the movie I think you’ll like the book too.