Book Review: ‘The Calamity Club’ by Kathryn Stockett

Book Title: The Calamity Club
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Fig Tree
Number of Pages: 656
ISBN: 0241796903
Date Published: May 21, 2026

Book Review

“The Calamity Club” by Kathryn Stockett is a heartfelt historical novel set in Depression-era Mississippi that follows the unlikely friendship between an orphan girl and a young woman trying to save her family from ruin. Published in 2026 after a 15-year gap since Stockett’s bestselling debut ‘The Help’, the book is big, moving, and full of resilient women who fight for their lives with humour and courage.

The story mainly centres on two voices: eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur, who has been abandoned by her mother and kept in a harsh orphanage, and Birdie Calhoun, a 24-year-old unmarried sister who comes to Oxford to ask for help and ends up volunteering at the orphanage. As Birdie and Meg clean, paint, and talk together in a mouldy, boarded-up room, they form a deep bond that changes both of them. The novel also introduces other women—maids, spinster relatives, and even sex workers—who join what becomes known as “The Calamity Club” to protect one another and survive the cruel systems around them.

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Author Kathryn Stockett’s writing is clear, warm, and full of character, making a long, slow-moving story feel absorbing instead of heavy. She shows the hard realities of the 1930s South—unwed motherhood, forced sterilisation, poverty, and racial and social divisions—but balances them with moments of friendship, laughter, and hope. The book is over 650 pages, so it feels like a proper saga, but the careful building of relationships and the strong voices keep readers engaged.

Overall, “The Calamity Club” is an easy-to-read, emotionally satisfying story about survival, female friendship, and second chances. While it shares the same Southern setting and spirit as the author’s previous book, “The Help”, it stands on its own as a bold, big-hearted tale of ordinary women finding extraordinary strength. For readers who enjoy historical fiction with strong characters and a hopeful tone, this novel is a rewarding and memorable choice.

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