The Calamity Club

Please note that this post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may make a small commission if you purchase through the links within this post at no additional cost to you. Please see my Full Disclosures + Privacy Policy for more details.

Synopsis

The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything.

“A must-read.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.

Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.

Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.

Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg’s—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what’s rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.

The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time. 

Synopsis source: The StoryGraph

The dishcloths pictured here with the book are made using the lemon peel stitch. If you’d like to see how to work this stitch, see my Lemon Peel Dishcloth video on YouTube. That video stops at a single crochet border, but you can work the same border I did here by alternating FPdc and BPdc in a second border round. Work 5 dc into each corner when you come to them.

Review

Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction
HB&W Rating: 4 stars
View on StoryGraph, Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon

I went into this book with reasonably high expectations after enjoying Stockett’s The Help, and I was not disappointed.  The novel takes on an extraordinary number of weighty subjects, and while attempts to do too many things at once often result in some elements receiving more care than others, here Stockett manages the balancing act remarkably well. She seems to have a keen sense of what serves the story, what enriches the world and characters, and which tangents are worth pursuing. Each theme feels thoughtfully developed without overwhelming the narrative, creating a novel that is ambitious in scope yet consistently focused and engaging.

The breadth of those themes is worth mentioning because many of them are extraordinarily difficult. The Calamity Club is an incredibly heavy novel, and I would strongly recommend checking trigger warnings before diving in. The book tackles an astonishing number of difficult subjects, including poverty,  prostitution, gay conversion therapy, child abuse, child neglect and endangerment, forced sterilization and eugenics, wrongful institutionalization of women, Section 213 of the 1932 Economy Act removing women from paid jobs, suicide, ableism, racism, alcoholism, off-page rape, anti-miscegenation laws, and the systemic misogyny embedded in medicine. There are a lot of dark moments, and Stockett does not shy away from depicting the realities of the era.

I appreciated how effectively the Great Depression setting was woven into the story. The novel captures not only the financial devastation of the period but also acknowledges the emotional toll it took on men who had been conditioned to see themselves as providers. Stockett treats that struggle with empathy while still allowing the women in the story to shine through their resilience, ingenuity, and strength.

Garnett was an especially memorable villain—truly one of the most despicable characters in the book. I did find myself wishing the novel had more directly addressed the real-life horrors of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, which is referenced throughout the story. Readers unfamiliar with its history might assume it was a legitimate or even benevolent institution, when in reality it was an unlicensed adoption agency operated by Georgia Tann that functioned as a black-market baby ring responsible for enormous harm.

Despite the bleak subject matter, Stockett balances the darkness with a surprising amount of humor and warmth. Meg was one of my favorite characters, largely because of her wonderfully unfiltered inner monologue, but honestly, choosing a favorite character is difficult. One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its characterization. The entire cast feels fully realized, and even relatively minor characters are given enough depth and individuality to feel like real people rather than background figures.

I also appreciated the novel’s treatment of prostitution. Rather than reducing it to a moral issue or a stereotype, Stockett explores the economic and social realities that lead women into the profession, the reasons they remain in it, and the practical realities of the work itself. The result is a more humane and nuanced portrayal that helps destigmatize women who often get flattened into caricatures in historical fiction.

For all the suffering and injustice depicted throughout the novel, I never lost faith that Stockett was leading readers to a happy ending. She has a gift for putting her characters through the wringer while still offering hope on the other side. I will say that I wish we’d gotten a little more out of the ending as pertains to Francis and maybe Garnett as well, but that might be illogical given Francis’ characterization and Garnett’s position in society. We can’t have it all I suppose.

Overall, The Calamity Club is a well-written, thought-provoking novel with exceptional characterization, sharp humor, and a remarkable breadth of social commentary. By tackling everything from poverty and sexism to eugenics, institutional abuse, and racial injustice, Stockett creates a portrait of Depression-era America that feels both expansive and deeply personal. While the story is often emotionally heavy and may require the occasional break, its exploration of these issues through a historical lens encourages readers to consider the ways many of them continue to resonate today.

Until next time,

Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you never miss a review! You can also sign up for my newsletter for a recap of titles read, crochet patterns I’ve released, and more! I only send it out sporadically so that I don’t spam you, promise. 😉