Bay's Books

Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Original Published Date: 2009

Pages: 403

Edition Language: Danish

Format: Hardback

Category: Historical Fiction, Cultural, Book Club,

Summary: (from Goodreads) Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who's always taken orders quietly, but lately she's unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She's full of ambition, but without a husband, she's considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...

Review: We've all tried it. There is being a big fuss about a book - everyone recommends it to you, but of some unknown reason you really don't want to read it. When you finally read it you can either A) for some unknown reason be right about your intuition and hate it. Or B) Have your mind blown away because... Oh... MY GOD!

Guess which option I had? Yes, option B! Oh my God that was a good book. Not a favorite, which recalls I know I want to reread it again a lot - no, this is a book you read one time and maybe another after 10 years, but do not believe it makes it any less good!

Some books are just some you only read once, but have all the qualities the favorites have except the need to read it again.

The Help was one of the most exciting, well-worked, charismatic, realistic, heart-warming, well-written book I have read.

Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter are all wonderful main characters and have all very different personalities. Minny being the stereotype of a sassy Afro-american woman. Aibileen being down-to-earth and wise. And then there is Miss Skeeter. Unlike Aibileen and Minny she is white. Unlike the other white women she is single, educated and rebellious. As a contrast to Miss Skeeter we have Miss Hilly - the antagonist in this book. She is a typical stereotype of a Southern white woman - in the bad way. 

I loved every character, even Miss Hilly because she is so annoying and awful in a great way. I love hating her! My favorite character are Aibileen. I believe she has the biggest heart in the whole book. And I love what is going on her mind. She is one of those characters who have no fault and it is not annoying, because at the same time she is not perfect. She isn't a saint! 

All characters are great, the writing style is simple but great and the plot is great!

I hate not knowing things. I am biiig on spoilers. But this time I forced myself to endure it. And holy moly there are many hints of secrets! There's the secret of what happened to Constantine, Minny's Terrible Awful and the secret of miss Celia. God they annoyed me from not knowing! But that just made it more exciting and the surprises there were throughout the story - brilliant! 

It is a dark topic, but I do not see the book as being dark. On the contrary I found it heart-warming and sad some times (I cried three times!). 

What I really liked was that it wasn't easy for miss Skeeter to write the book. It wasn't like "alright after a month of despair we finally find a way and the book is written within three months! Hallelujah!" It actually took time a realistic amount of time and it took really long time before it started to get smooth and then it didn't anyway. I like that. And I like that things like president Kennedy's death, Martin Luther King's speech and the Space Commander invention (the first wireless remote control) are mentioned in the book, so it feels more real. 

It is rarely I can't pinpoint some bad qualities of a book, but I can't. I had one, but Stockett took care of my problem further in the book. I was like "wauw-great-service". 

Really liked it and loved it. I would recommend it to everyone! I almost wanted to hit my head for not follow others recommendation of it. I feel so stupid now.