1/300 Books – The Help

Part of my 20 before 20 goal is to read 300 books. I’ve finished one.

**possible spoilers for those who haven’t read The Help**

I read The Help partly because my mom has been prying at me to read it since before the movie was announced to be coming out. I also read this because I always like to read the book before going to the movie, and since I’ve racked up a considerable amount of guilt seeing every movie from the Harry Potter series in theaters without picking up a single book, I thought I owed it to the literary world this time.

I’m not going to review this book or anything – I’m too opinionated and wordy for reviewing and before I even come close to my 300 goal, I will be sick of reviewing because 300’s a LOT – but I will say a few things about it.

1. READ IT. It’s worth it.
2. In my case, I don’t know about any other people who’ve read it, it was one of those books where I’d get cooking, streaming though page after page for 3-4 hours a day, then I’d put the cover flap in my place and look at the progress I’d made – not much. How could I have been reading for four hours straight, and in my opinion, plowing through it, and read a little less than a half inch of pages?!?! I wanted to finish it in a matter of days (like, two) in case we were going to the movie this weekend – probably not from this HURRICANE – so I was motivated to get through it. That doesn’t mean I just skimmed – I read that darn book and I would read it again. But my mom’s going to lend it to someone else now.
3. Kathryn Stockett (author) nailed it. Absolutely, inexplicably, utterly, extraordinarily nailed this book. She maintains a large sum of involved characters, keeps in touch with the tricky subject of time (though she does admit to taking liberties with time in the author’s note at the back of the book) with deadlines and specific dates accounted for, and gives me an eye of what everything looked like, sounded like in that time. Heck, she even wrote in the dialect of the characters when she flawlessly switches from each person’s point of view.
4. **(this will be a spoiler, so please ignore numbers 4-6 if you haven’t read the book!)**
   My favorite parts are: – when Aibileen tells Mae Mobley their secret story – when Aibileen lies about Minny to get her the job as Celia Foote’s maid – Minny’s Terrible Awful – and most of all, when Hilly comes to tattle on Skeeter to her mother about her book and her mom insults almost everything about Hilly’s current appearance and then goes to bed, leaving her speechless. Of course, I loved when the book Help got published within The Help, but that’s a given.
5. I think I was really engaged in this book mostly because one of the main characters, Skeeter, is a writer. Her thought process is similar to mine and I found her dedication to writing and gradual rise from Not a Writer to Writer for the Newspaper to Sneaking Around to Finish the Book of her Dreams to Getting a Job in New York and Her Book is a Hit inspiring.
6. Back to the characters again, I must commend Kathryn Stockett on her job of creating the Hilly character. She perfectly executed the character that you’re meant to hate. I mean, I was boiling mad at Hilly the entire book, I thought she was a witch and every time one of the good characters would take her crap and watch her leave without giving her a piece of their minds, I would think, “Whaaaat?! She would have had a black eye by now if I were there. Well, at least been thoroughly yelled at.” But, after I got over my frustration I realized, each time, Not yet. They’re not doing anything, YET. Sure enough, by the end, they had outsmarted that girl, and that means EONS more than any kind of physical or verbal action. I love when that happens.
7. This is a five-star book here, people. READ IT. I couldn’t have picked a more perfect beginning to my 300 book journey.