What readers think of The Help, plus links to write your own review.

For years I have been looking for a book that would make me feel the same emotions as I felt when I read "To Kill and Mockingbird", and this book is definitely it. I laughed, I cried, I felt deep concern for the characters, I could not put it down until it was finished. I grew up in the South without a maid, but was aware of them through friends and other family members. To say I fell in love with Skeeter, Abilene and Minny does not seem to describe how much I wanted to share time with them during the book. Unlike Harper Lee, I hope Kathryn Stockett will continue to write more and more stories. I can't wait to read the next thing she puts out. Great job, Kathryn!!

This is the best book I have read this year, and I read a lot!! It has a perfect mix of humor and drama to keep me just waiting for my next chance to pick it up. And, it was fun imagining how people I know now would have fit into that time period and culture. Which side would they have been on?

Overall, it was extremely entertaining, and enlightening as to life in the south during the early civil rights movement.

I read this book and I SOBBED. I haven't cried so hard since I watched Dancing with Wolves. So much to think about!! I will be thinking about this book for a very long time. I am "White". I am looking forward to hearing from my African-American friends their perspective. I hope some of them read the book. This would be a very good book to use as a basis for discussions of race & racism consisting of a mixed group of people----Black & White--young & old--from the South & not from the South. I'm sure my reaction probably would differ from my friends. And I'm sure I would have a WHOLE different view of things afterward--with MORE things to think about.

I'd like to do a quick shout-out for the AUDIO version of this fantastic book. It is one of the best I have ever listened to, EVER. The actors do a masterful job juggling the variety of accents and emotions, bringing the characters vividly alive with every word. I'm a Southerner, too, and a badly done Southern accent is like nails on a chalkboard, but you won't find any of that in this recording. I've heard these womens' voices every day of my life and the actors nail it every single time. Kudos to the author for a book that will be on my lifetime Top 10 list, and to the actors who perform the audio version so beautifully. Thank you all!

I slowed down reading The Help halfway through so the characters in this exceptional first novel would stay with me longer. The author includes a quote from Howell Raines's article "Grady's Gift" I want to highlight here in the hopes it entices more people to BUY THIS BOOK:
"There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism." Kathryn Stockett delivers the world of the South in the 60's with unerring true voice. I am glad beyond measure she wrote this book!

I loved the characters,the stories, and how this white woman was able to create voices that felt so real in terms of my own experience. I never wanted this to end.

It's been a long time since I sat down and read a book cover to cover, putting everything else in the world aside. This is one of those books.

If you are a fan of Southern writing I think you will find this book reminiscent of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Maybe not in the caliber of writing I think this is a first time author but certainly in the message imparted.

The characters were fully developed, the story line superb .... I HIGHLY recommend you read this book. Just don't plan to do anything else for a full day and night!

What does everybody think about the anti-Christian message subtly woven throughout the book? Hilly, the villain, remarks to Skeeter, the heroine, "And you call yourself a Christian!" (p.407) among numerous other similar interactions, thereby showing that Stockett sees Christians as hypocrites. Notice, too, that this controversial thread was not in the movie anywhere. Any thoughts?