The Calamity Club

By: Kathryn Stockett

Narrators: Jenna Lamia, January LaVoy

Spotify Audiobooks

ISBN: 9781954118812

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau

Publication Date: 05/05/2026

Format: Other

My Rating: 5 Stars + (ARC):

MAY 2026 MUST-READ BOOKS

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, GOODREADS, TOWN & COUNTRY, MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, GARDEN & GUN, AARP, WOMAN’S WORLD, COUNTRY LIVING, AND OPRAH DAILY

“So immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.”—Oprah Daily

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.

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.

Buy the Book

#TheCalamityClub

My Review

Heartbreaking yet hilarious, set in 1933 Mississippi, Kathryn Stockett’s latest hit, THE CALAMITY CLUB follows 11-year-old orphan Meg LeFleur, abandoned by her mother and 24-year-old "spinster" Birdie Calhoun, whose lives intersect with a group of desperate women. Facing Depression-era hardship, they form an unlikely alliance to pull off a dangerous, audacious plan to take control of their futures in this dazzling page turner.

Highlights...

The Orphanage:

Meg is struggling to survive at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls, managed by a cruel, corrupt chairlady after losing her mom at age nine.

Birdie:

Birdie leaves her family to ask her socialite sister, Frances, for financial help, only to discover Frances's wealthy life is built on lies.

Meeting of Minds:

Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman recently freed from an institution, and they team up to fight for their freedom and futures.

The Plot:

The group of women, deemed "undesirable" or "wayward," devises a dangerous, albeit profitable, plan to take back control of their lives.

Resilience:

The novel follows their struggle against a backdrop of financial despair and limited choices, building towards a hopeful, yet perilous, new beginning.

My thoughts...

The Calamity Club (2026) by Kathryn Stockett (author of The Help) is set in 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, during the Great Depression. The sprawling, gritty historical fiction novel follows a "found family" of women similar in tone to Southern epics and character-driven tales of resilience.

The engrossing plot follows three women whose lives intersect at a local orphanage, leading to an "audacious plan" to reclaim their lives in a society rife with hypocrisy.

The characters are unbreakable and spirited, smart, feisty, and resilient. Birdie and Charlie are unforgettable with sass and humor while navigating economic hardship and challenges.

The writing is wrought with depth, with inner monologues that make the characters feel genuine, human, and flawed. The author's writing is bold, immersive, atmospheric, vivid, and transportative, bringing the heat and hypocrisy of the 1930s Mississippi to life. Full of humor and heartbreak that will make you laugh out loud.

The author tackles dark historical topics of eugenics through a lens of wicked humor with her sharp Southern storytelling, research, and attention to detail. Stockett uses satire to expose the hypocrisy of the "old-money South."

The humor acts as a crucial counterbalance to its darker themes, preventing the story from succumbing to "total doom and gloom" despite its 1933 Great Depression setting. The two narrators, Meg and Birdie, bring different, highly specific brands of humor to the story.

A major plot point involves the real historical 1928 Mississippi law that legalized the sterilization of those deemed feeble-minded or immoral—a cleansing of society that primarily targeted vulnerable women.

The author critiques Southern "politeness" as a facade, exploring themes of hypocrisy, the stigma of "immoral" behavior, and the rigid racial and class hierarchies of the time.

The way Stockett uses wicked humor to make such a heavy historical subject like eugenics approachable is definitely one of the book's most unique strengths. The historical context, the individual character growth, and thematic balance make this a must-read book for fans and ideal for book clubs.

The themes of survival and resilience are tailored to the vastly different stages of life for the two protagonists, Meg and Birdie. Meg, unadoptable, the 11-year-old Meg, themes play out through the lens of childhood isolation and institutional cruelty. For Birdie, themes focus on financial desperation and the rejection of social norms.

Kathryn Stockett skillfully explores deep social and personal issues through the lens of Depression-era Mississippi.

Key themes include:

~Resilience & Survival

~Economic Hardship

~Female Empowerment

~Motherhood & Found Family

~Primal Longings

~Chosen Sisterhood

~Social Injustice & Hypocrisy

~Institutional Cruelty

~Societal Facades

~Identity & Defiance

"The Calamity Club" —a secret business venture—symbolizes the women’s radical attempt to gain financial and personal independence. The audacity of the club provides a rollicking energy that balances the wrenching tragedy of forced sterilization and institutional abuse:

The novel suggests that while the law and society may label certain women as "unadoptable," "feeble-minded," or "immoral," those labels are often just tools used by the powerful to maintain control. The "calamity" isn't the hardship the women face—it’s the radical defiance they show by choosing to save one another when the system is designed to break them.

The book’s ultimate message is that morality and legality are not the same thing. Stockett illustrates that the "law-abiding" citizens are often the most cruel, while the "scandalous" women of the Calamity Club represent the story’s true moral center, and that resilience is a collective act.

The novel brilliantly explores themes of female resilience, trust, risks, the bond between mothers and daughters, and the lengths to which women will go to survive economic hardship. Despite having few legal rights or options, they work together creatively to reclaim control over their lives.

The finale shifts from historical tragedy toward a satisfying, emotional triumph where the women's creative collaboration finally pays off. Comparing the endings of The Calamity Club and The Help highlights a shift in Stockett’s focus from external justice to internal liberation.

I highly recommend!

Recs...

THE CALAMITY CLUB is for fans of Southern Historical Fiction, found family, Southern Grit, and Character-Driven Narratives

~The Help by Kathryn Stocket

~The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church

~Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

~Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

~The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman

~The Moonshine Women by Michele Collins Anderson

~Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

And classics:

~Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

~The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Special thanks to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for providing an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. I look forward to listening to the audiobook narrated by my favorite, January LaVoy, and Jenna Lamia, and the hardcover copy purchased for my home library.

@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks

My Rating: 5 Stars +

Pub Date: May 5, 2026

May Newsletter

May 2026 Must-Read Books

Praise

A New York Times Book Everyone Will Be Talking about in 2026

An Oprah Daily Best Book of Spring 2026

A Goodreads Readers’ Most Anticipated Book of 2026

A Garden & Gun Most Anticipated Book of 2026

A Woman’s World Book Everyone Will Be Talking about in 2026

A Town & Country Most Anticipated Book of Spring

An AARP Spring Preview

A Minnesota Star-Tribune 2026 Preview

A Country Living Book to Curl Up on the Porch with this Spring

A New York Post Buzzy Book to Read This Spring

A New York Times Novel We're Excited About This Spring

“Smart, funny, and driven by unforgettable characters whose opinions and actions leap off the page, this is a must-read.”

—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

“So immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.”

—Oprah Daily

“As witty, bold, and transportive as it is heartbreaking and compassionate, The Calamity Club is storytelling at its finest. Stockett’s masterfully drawn characters are simply unforgettable. Bravo to Meg, Birdie, and Charlie for reminding us to never underestimate the bottomless resilience of smart, spirited women in revolt against circumstance and injustice.”

—Shelley Read, internationally bestselling author of Go as a River

“Compulsively readable . . . A satisfyingly twisty tale . . . Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.”

—Kirkus

“Stockett’s vibrant follow-up to her bestselling 2009 novel, The Help, traces the intersecting lives of an exasperated older sister, a precocious orphan, and an enterprising woman in 1933 Mississippi. . . . By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this offers a memorable view into the impossible choices faced by women in the Great Depression.”—Publishers Weekly

“The enormous success of The Help as a novel and as the source for the Academy Award–winning film has left readers longing for Stockett's second novel. . . . As she did in The Help, Stockett again satirizes the hypocrisy underpinning much of the early-twentieth-century South in a saga populated with memorable characters who rely on stock-in-trade pluck and sass to right all wrongs.”

—Booklist

“A big-hearted tale packed with plenty of details about life in the South during the lead-up to the Great Depression.”

—Country Living

About the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

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