Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Audio Book)

I ventured into my first audiobook to see how it made my commute. Though it took getting used to ( i.e., focusing on the road AND the story) I REALLY enjoyed listening to this production of the book!

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

I am going to bypass some of our normal review criteria for this audiobook review:

Narrator Voice: 10- MAN I loved these voices, I thought they were great fits to the story.  I know that narrator is a huge aspect of audiobooks, and the southern drawls, sass, and fear that came through this performance was just top notch.

Originality:  9- I have really never read a book like this.  My favorite character was Aibileen, but i loved Skeeter as well, for the cultural prejudices she faced and her realization of the impact of this on her life.

Absurdity: NA

Level of Paranormal Romance: NA (there is some romance, but in reality, it is just a tool to show Skeeter's growth and sassiness.)

Level of Harry-Potterness: 9- I thought this story was wonderfully told, at times incredibly detailed and others skipping ahead in time so we could so how the events all unfolded.  I loved the various points of view of the characters and it allowed their strengths and weaknesses to be seen.

While I may be like 4 years behind the trend on this, even my boyfriend has seen the movie surprisingly, but I bet the wait list is very short ( or nonexistent) for this book at your library and if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend!