Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul
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.
Review: When white actress Kitty Karr Tate dies and leaves her fortune to the three black St. John sisters, the world is buzzing with questions. Elise St. John discovers the truth in one of Kitty's journals that rocks her world. In alternating chapters, the novel dives back in time to Kitty's childhood and rise to stardom to help reveal the unexpected connection between the two families and the secrets that Kitty kept until her death.
I loved Kitty's life story. This was a fascinating look at race and the fine line between the world viewing members of society as black or white. Kitty has a complicated life story and ends up embracing a path that forces her to abandon her past and her origins. I do think her story is realistic and one that did take place during the fifties and later. But it truly did cost her a great deal and was hard to read.
I did not enjoy the chapters that focused more on the St. John sisters. It felt as if their stories were far less fleshed out. It may have functioned better as a frame story to bracket the beginning and ending of the book, but the frequent interjections of their perspective were tedious, and I was constantly just waiting to get back to Kitty's side of the story. Additionally, I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator for the Elise chapters read in an exceedingly monotone voice that did not help me enjoy these chapters anymore.
I loved the plot of this book but at times the writing did feel a little sloppy. For instance, when Kitty first starts working with Nathan, there was a lot of build up to them potentially becoming a couple. And then them finally getting together was essentially glided over in the text. Sarah's origin story was essentially the same way in terms of the fallout between her parents. Emotions were not fully explored, and the scenes were abrupt. I thought the character development of the three St. John sisters were similarly glossed over without any depth or attempt to fully flesh them each out.
This reminded me a lot of a cross between The Help by Kathryn Stockton and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I loved seeing Kitty rise from being the daughter of a maid to the glamor of being a wealthy movie star and I loved the theme of racism and the cost of attempting to escape it for a better life explored. I do wish the writing had been sharper and the characters and their relationships had been a little more well defined by otherwise an enjoyable work of historical fiction.
Stars: 4
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