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

I grew up in the time frame described in The Help. I was the white child loved and nurtured by the black maid who ate in the kitchen and used a separate bathroom. I can not explain how amazing and freeing it is to finally read something like this book that captures such a difficult and confusing part of my young life so clearly. My mind will never really be able to come to rest with what my childhood taught me about race. I have an illusion that all black women are loving and a guilt for every bad thing all black people have suffered. I know the truth but my emotions are still stuck back in my young years where the black and white people I loved so much seemed not to notice all the meaness. I have long ago given up trying to resolve my feeling but it is very good to know my experience is understandable and shared by others who lived through this time of social insanity.

This was one of the best novels I have read in a long long time... Thank you Kathryn Stockett for giving it to us to read. Looking forward to the movie. How lucky we are to have someone to open our eyes to the way things were in 1960.

The book is well-written and I throughly enjoyed the characters. It was a long book which I don't mind since it was very enjoyable. The last few chapters I was getting concerned since I knew the ending was soon and I did not read any situations coming up that would develop a good ending. The ending was very disappointing in that it was too easy and actually I believe it was allowing the author to do a sequel to this novel. I don't appreciate that possibility due to my time reading this novel. The ending just seemed like a hurried effort and it certainly was not very original to the story.

The book was a good read. It was an eye opener and yet it was like a journey into the lives of each character. I was a bit disappointed with the end of the book. It seemed such a sad and abrupt end. I am looking forward to seeing the movie and hope the end will have more of a closure than the book.

I LOVED this novel! From the moment I picked it up I couldn't put it down. It was suspenseful and felt so real. Thank you Kathryn Stockett!

I found this book to be, basically, uninteresting. The characters, especially the white ones, were one-dimensional, the relationships not believable, the writing so so, and the plot fairly nonexistent. However, for those who have not thought much about racial inequality in the south, I suppose the book is somewhat enlightening. I agree with a previous reviewer who stated that the book reads like a Nora Roberts soap opera.

The Help was a good book. The end was slow and disappointing. Seemed rushed.

I read 3 to 5 books a month (age 64) and THE HELP is now in my top three books of all time. I happened to listen to the book on an audio recording and it was fantastic! The authenticity of the character's dialects really added to the deep emotions of the various women. This time period is a match to my age but having grown up in San Diego was not exposed to such prejudice. It has certainly helped me to continue to grow in becoming a more compassionate person toward all humans. I would LOVE to see this made into a movie!