Confession: I read this book because I watched the movie. And I really liked the movie. I also read this book because my sister had a copy of it and loaned it to me, which made it convenient to read it at my leisure and not in the three-week period the Provo Library has. Freedom!
I really liked this book. In fact, I gave it five stars on Goodreads—I liked it that much. And here's why:
The characters: Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter really sold it for me. The characters were lively, funny, thoughtful, wise. I felt they were friends from the beginning. Minny was my favorite with her spunky attitude and backtalking, but I felt that I connected more with Aibileen. It also helped that the images I had in my head were similar to the actresses in the movie. I couldn't help but compare the book to the movie, and am quite satisfied with the adaptation.
The plot: I was hooked after reading two chapters. I wanted to see the book to the end. I needed to know what happened (even though I knew what was going to happen).
Themes: This story got me thinking about relationships in my life. It's amazing to me how many interactions we have with people and we don't realize how much of an impact we can make by what we say or what we do. In some ways, this book showed that we do and say affects others more than we realize. When Aibileen says, "You is smart, you is kind, you is important" to little Mae Mobley to offset what Mrs. Leefolt has done, it tugged at my heart. It was interesting how that sentence is repeated over and over in the movie, but in the book, we get different versions of it until the last chapter.
I don't like the cover though. When I first saw this book, I had no idea what it was about. The cover does nothing for me. That's my only complaint.
Read it and let me know what you think!
