Hollywood Icon: A Review of Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

Guess what? I’m still on my historical fiction kick. I’ve been searching all my bookshelves for historical fiction titles to read. I have a lot. The issue is I don’t have many that I haven’t already reviewed. But then I found one.

Please give a warm welcome to Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I do also have some content and trigger warnings to issue before getting to the synopsis. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? discusses rape and sexual assault, racism, lynching, and police brutality. Please take care while reading. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

Kitty Karr Tate is a Hollywood Icon and has been since she entered the acting scene back in the late-1950s. But when this white silver screen icon passes away and leaves her entire estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy, black women, people begin to talk. Why them? They’re the daughters of Kitty's former co-star whom she worked with decades ago. Kitty’s estate going to these three just doesn’t make sense.

Elise St. John, deep in grief, would much rather put Kitty’s affairs in order than have to deal with the press hounding her over her inheritance and Kitty's death. That's when Elise discovers journals and letters hidden away in Kitty’s things. The journals were written by Kitty when she first arrived in LA. They detail her rise to stardom, her romance and marriage with the head of a film studio, and her involvement with an organization known as Blair House; just to name a few things.

But most shockingly are the big secrets Kitty reveals about herself. And there are a lot of them. I'll tell you one: Kitty wasn’t white, she was passing. Hollywood made a black woman an icon during the time of Jim Crow and they didn’t know it.

Honestly Kitty is an icon in every sense of the word.

Kitty’s story is fascinating. It’s engrossing, poignant, and tragic while also being full of love and life. Moments of her life filled with Old Hollywood glamour are intercut with historical atrocities such as the lynching of Emmitt Till. I needed to know everything about Kitty and her life. Kitty’s story is truly the heart of the novel. Without her fascinating character, without all her experiences with racism, colorism, and the machine that was Old Hollywood, this novel would be a hot mess.

On the other hand, there is Elise’s story. Her story cannot stand on its own. Chapters told from her point of view are a slog to get through. Had I not known exactly what Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? was about prior to picking it up, I would have never finished the book. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? opens with a chapter from Elise's point of view, and it’s rough. The author did a terrible job at introducing Elise and her family and failed to set up the story at large. There had to have been a better way to tell Elise’s story. I realize she is an intrinsic part of the plot, especially at the end of the novel, but when the narrative focuses on her the whole book slows. The Elise chapters feel like an afterthought and most could have been cut from the final draft.

It doesn’t help that Elise has virtually no personality. Sure, one could make the argument that she is deep in grief so readers don't get the opportunity to know the true her, but some of her personality should still bleed through. Alas I can’t tell you a thing about her other than she’s a nepo baby. She’s so bland and static! The growth she does get at the end of the novel feels incredibly rushed. Oh how I wish Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? was told solely from Kitty’s point of view.

Aside from Elise’s chapters, my biggest issue with the text is the amount of characters. This story is multi-generational, a large cast of characters is to be expected, but when Kitty becomes involved with Blair House, the author introduces a dozen new characters all at once. I don’t know who ninety percent of these women are. Most are not important to the plot and quickly leave the story. Until they randomly show up many chapters later to have one important conversation!

What Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? truly needed was one more pass on the editor’s desk. There are some noticeable quality issues with the writing, and while Kitty’s story is phenomenal, the quality of the writing in Elise's chapters detracts from the quality of the story. A sad reality for Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? which could have been a truly fantastic read.

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds. I hope you all enjoyed your stay, and I will see you all again next week with a very special post. If you can’t wait that long then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books then I highly suggest checking out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk about everything under the sun. We have episodes on Disney, Barbie, Scooby-Doo, weird moments of history, bad 90s wrestling, and so much more; there is bound to be something that strikes your fancy. You can currently listen to the show on Spotify and YouTube. New episodes release every Wednesday evening.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.  

See y'all then, bye!