Author: Crystal Smith Paul
Genre: Historical Fiction / Family Saga / Hollywood & Identity Drama
Ideal For: Readers who love shimmering starlets, secret legacies, racial reckoning and the collision of glamour and truth. If you devoured The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or The Vanishing Half, then Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? will take you on a thrilling ride you’ll want to talk about for days.
Plot Summary (Spoiler-Free)
From its opening pages, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? conjures the twin worlds of old-Hollywood glamour and the hidden machinery of race and identity. Kitty Karr Tate—a luminous white-presenting film icon—dies suddenly. Her estate? Left in full to the St. John sisters, three celebrated Black women. The world is stunned. Questions erupt. And then the truths buried beneath decades begin to stir.
The novel moves through dual timelines: Kitty’s rise from a segregated South childhood to Tinseltown stardom, and the St. John sisters in the present, grappling with fame, inheritance, and the secrets of the woman next door who may have been more than she seemed.
Paul’s Craft: Sweeping, Thoughtful, Emotionally Charged
What makes this book stand out is how ambitious it is—not just in story but in scope. Crystal Smith Paul handles multiple timelines, shifting voices and layered history with striking grace. From the Jim Crow South to the film sets of Hollywood, the novel charts generational trauma and personal ambition with equal weight.
The writing balances the glitz of the silver screen with the visceral realities of passing, choice and survival.
Kitty’s chapters are especially strong—full of vivid emotion, moral complexity and moments that stay with you long after the page has closed.
Themes That Echo
Race, Passing & Identity. Kitty’s ability to “pass” as white opens up questions of privilege, loss, reinvention and erasure. The book examines what it costs someone to leave a past behind.
Fame, Legacy & Secrets. What does an icon leave behind? And what happens when a fortune doesn’t go to the expected heirs? The St. John sisters inherit more than fortune—they inherit story.
Motherhood & Ambition. From Kitty’s mother Hazel in the South to Kitty herself in Hollywood, the novel traces female ambition in environments stacked against them. The choices are difficult and the consequences real.
Generational Impact. The decisions made in hidden rooms ripple through decades. The texture of trauma, privilege and identity is layered and rich.
What Works Beautifully
Emotional power. The stories of Hazel, Kitty, the sisters are vivid, resonant, subtle yet fierce. Some reviewers call the historical sections “astonishing.”
Ambitious structure. Jumping across decades, the narrative still manages to stay focused and compelling.
Themes that challenge. This isn’t a comfortable read; it forces you to look at systems, choices and magic of survival.
Great for discussion. With issues of fame, race, inheritance and identity all in one, it’s pretty ideal for book clubs.
A Minor Quibble (That Doesn’t Diminish the Joy)
Because the novel spans many characters and time periods, the cast can feel large and complex—some readers found the multitude of voices harder to track. The present-day sections were slightly less strong, compared to the historical storyline.
But even with those minor notes, the overall impact of the book is wholly satisfying.
Why You’ll Remember It
After finishing Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?, you won’t just recall the plot—you’ll remember the moment when you realise what Kitty’s secret actually means, or the way one conversation about “passing” shocked you. You’ll think of the actresses, the big estates, the tiny rooms, the child left behind. You’ll find yourself saying: “I want to understand more about what she gave up.”
And you’ll want to tell someone: “Read this—then we’ll talk about it.”
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a story that’s both sweeping and intimate, glamourous and raw, entertaining and unsettling. Crystal Smith Paul has created a debut that crafts thrills and also holds deep truths. If you are drawn to layered storytelling about identity, legacy and the cost of brilliance, this book is absolutely for you. Pick it up. Be ready to stay up late. Be ready to be haunted—in the best way.
