The Help

The Help is one of those books I tore through in about a day and have trouble even knowing where to begin when talking about it. Kathryn Stockett created three of the most well-developed, humorous, and enchanting characters that I have ever read. Each of the three main women in this story had so much personality. Young Skeeter, fresh out of college, is unhappy with the world she sees. She is a white woman living in 1962 Mississippi who becomes determined to make the voices of the black ladies' maids heard, the maids that every family in town has working for them. The story focuses on Skeeter and the relationship she develops with Minny and Aibileen.

Stockett has a great sense for writing detail and description. When reading this book, I found myself immersed in the story to the point that I felt I could smell the scents that were being described and feel the heat of the summer that was mentioned. This is a book that I can easily see becoming a classic. It has so many strong messages in it and deep topics, but Stockett still managed to create lovable friendships between these women and also add some humor.

I don't think this is a book that needs to be taken too seriously from a factual standpoint. I did not read it as a history textbook. Stockett did a great job of acknowledging the historical aspects of the time period, but this is still a work of fiction, which I loved. For me, the book was more about getting to know the amazing characters and getting a feel for their personal ideas about life in the South during the early 60s. Stockett has a wonderful writing style. It was so effortless for me to fall into this story and not want to put it down until I was done. Each of the characters were so enthralling and the author did a great job of moving around between their three stories. The book had a great flow to it and I felt that the jumping between characters' stories made it even more interesting. This is a fantastic book and I hope that Kathryn Stockett writes another novel someday!

If you enjoy The Help, try Orphan Train for another great historical fiction novel!