Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Ratings16
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings16
Average rating3.8
A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz
When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.
A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.
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.
As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them.
Reviews with the most likes.
DNF at 25%. English is not my first language, but I've been reading books in it for almost 10 years and seldomly had any problem with understanding what I read. But I give up this book. Most of the time I was so confused who does what and who says anything. And I don't feel like it would be worth it to try to understand this book.
I'm drawn to stories about movies/Hollywood (both old and modern day) so I was excited to pick this up, and there was definitely a lot to like here. But mmmmmm I feel like...this would have functioned better as a more straightforward historical fiction without the intergenerational present day aspect? Like most readers are going to pretty quickly gather that Kitty was their secret grandma... so why make it a ~big reveal~ toward the end?
Also I just found Kitty's Old Hollywood storyline much more compelling than the present day St James sisters. Like I understand the parallels being drawn between Kitty needing to pass as White to succeed and Elise needing to delete her Black Lives Matter social media post but also like, IDK, did we need all 3 sisters and and also the publicists and also the boyfriends? A lot going on that didn't necessarily all contribute!
The thing I was maybe most interested in was the concept of the Blair House secret society for Black women passing as white to secretly help each other and help darker skinned women too, and I did some googles to see if that was a real thing and it seems like no? Or if there was...it's still secret? Anyway I would have loved a book that focused more on that and dropped the present day stuff?
Anyway...I'll keep an eye out and see what Crystal Smith Paul writes next because I think there's some good stuff in here but it's maybe a little too much packed into one debut novel?
