#20 in Historical fiction
The Help
- 495
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
- Film 2011
- On screen
- NYT bestseller · 58 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
- Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction
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Our view
“The Help” is at its strongest in Minny and Aibileen, two maids in early-1960s Mississippi whose voices have a force the rest of the cast cannot match. Some readers find Skeeter, the white woman beside them, comparatively thin. The story is told with warmth and is moving, though some caution that it is best read as fiction, not as a faithful record of what Black women of that time thought and lived.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Help is a historical fiction novel by American author Kathryn Stockett published by Penguin Books in 2009. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s. A USA Today article called it one of the "summer sleeper hits". An early review in The New York Times notes Stockett's "affection and intimacy buried beneath even the most seemingly impersonal household connections", and says the book is a "button-pushing, soon to be wildly popular novel". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said of the book: "This heartbreaking story is a stunning début from a gifted talent."
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe HelpIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.4 across 1,287 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 90% of the weight and the score stays at 8.4 — the Historical fiction average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.5 | 115 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 1.2K | 91% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Help?
It has 495 pages — longer than 61% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Historical fiction — with scores between 8.3 and 8.4, closest to this book.
