Book Review ~ The Help

I just finished reading The Help. I thought it was a wonderful book with a compelling story.

Things I liked:
*The plot.
*The historical significance of the subject matter.
*The way real-life happenings of the time were woven into the fiction.
*The principle characters were full and interesting.
*There was not a "perfect" wrap up (just like life). I want to know if Minny had twins!
*The book-within-the-book style of writing. I loved that.

Things I didn't care for so much:
*Most of the secondary characters were a bit wooden and flat. There was no reason to even include Stuart except to bring a tie in with a powerful political figure. I felt it was clumsily done.
*This book needed about 300 more pages to really make the characters shine.
*While overall the author showed skill in believably diving the plot, there were still some places I had trouble making the leap in plot development. I am still not 100% sure that these domestics would open up to a young, aristocratic, white girl.
*A lot of it was predictable.
*I felt that it was written more in a manor to make it a sell-able movie as opposed to "literature".

None of my "dislikes" were enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book. And several of my "likes" made it amazing. An excellent book of significant value to understanding others.