She was sitting outside on the front door’s single step, waiting, when Andy Davis, her driver and bodyguard of the last five years, arrived with her publicist and best friend by proximity since preschool, Rebecca Owens. Sarah reveals that she was so angry when she found out Kitty is her real mother. Let’s talk about the impact of the revelation to Sarah. How did influence her own views of motherhood?

Although I found the premise utterly intriguing and the writing to be bingeable, I struggled with the overall execution of this book, which left it feeling like a very average read with a lot to say but an inability to actually do so. With the praise came theories about her mysterious life and the circumstances of her demise. Kitty had become an urban legend postmortem, a Sunset Boulevard caricature who, rumor said, had committed suicide after years of seclusion. Kitty quit acting in her early fifties and, aside from a few rare public appearances, hadn’t been photographed in more than twenty years. Though the studio was made to look like a garden shed, the steel door was actually bulletproof. She punched in the keypad code and entered to find her father fingering a drum machine.

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

The truth behind Kitty’s ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them. Multiple Timelines And I agree. I think while of course, there are things that happen to Kitty, she makes the choice to go along with it too. How does the revelation of Kitty Karr’s hidden past impact Elise St. John and her perception of her own choices? Discuss the significance of uncovering secrets and the power they hold over the characters.

For Kitty, she feels she’s left with no choice. In her opinion, events in her life happen to her and she has to figure out how to move forward. What’s interesting is a character says to Elise in the present that he doesn’t believe that—there’s always a choice to be made. Chapters in the Past: The past and the lead up to the present were chapters that held my attention and kept me reading. Super readable and easy to binge as I wanted to know more!How did both Mary and Lillian change once they took on their new names? What are some of the key differences between Kitty and Emma and how they approach passing? Propulsive and entertaining, with broad historical relevance and critical cultural significance, this is the uniquely American story we all need to read―it holds a piece of all of us. I absolutely loved it and will be looking forward to more from Crystal Smith Paul." This story is so good. I could not put it down and I had to know how it would end. It’s interesting because you know the truth ahead of the characters but how it got there is so fascinating. And what the characters do with that information moving forward is also thought-provoking as well. Besides the overdone storyline, there were a few other aspects that didn't work out for me. First, there were too many POVs, making it confusing at times. It would often get jumbled and I had to re-read certain chapters to make sense of it all. This is a slow burn book, so it took awhile to get into the story. The book was too long and I struggled with the execution. The writing itself left alot to be desired. I really could not relate to the St. John sisters. You are already millionaires, who just inherited more millions and they were unhappy, ungrateful and overall seemed miserable in their lives.

Paul’s debut is a riveting, often heartbreaking tale that explores race, privilege, and celebrity in America through the eyes of a one-of-a-kind character. Readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Piper Huguley will be enthralled." Overall, I liked the book, and I think it will be a great discussion book. I'd also be interested to read more from this author. Chapters in the "Present": The present chapters are my least favorite part of the book. The St. John sisters are hard to relate to, and having them already millionaires who weren't truly affected by Kitty's gift made me want to care less about them. Overall these chapters just dragged as again we're introduced to more unhappy, unmemorable characters. Elise St. John, one of the sisters and a celebrity in her own right, finds herself knee-deep in sorting out Kitty’s affairs. But what she discovers in Kitty’s journals turns her world upside down. We’re talking scandal, family ties, debts owed, and even debatable crimes. Whoa, right?Kitty Kar! : She is a main character that shines and feels real. I understood her motives, her fears, her actions, and I empathized with her every step of the way. Kitty is truly THAT girl. Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing .Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Halfconsiders the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins. Nora insists they retreat to Summer Island in the San Juans, to the lovely old house on the water where Ruby grew up, a place filled with childhood memories of love and joy and belonging. There Ruby is also reunited with her first love and his brother. Once, the three of them had been best friends, inseparable. Until the summer that Nora had left and everyone’s hearts had been broken. . . . This author has given readers an extremely interesting storyline that can be discussed for quite some time. What saddened me so much is how Kitty's life always seemed like others were constantly making decisions for her, since childhood. And, She was stripped of true Love.. Crystal Smith Paul has written this like a real Dazzling movie also.