Mad Honey: an absolutely heart-pounding and heart-breaking book club novel

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan is a powerful contemporary novel that consumed me from the start. I have always loved Jodi Picoult’s novels and Mad Honey is no exception. The plotline surrounds a young man, Asher, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Lily. The reader follows the trial through the eyes of Asher’s mother after the event; and we hear Lily’s voice leading up to the event. Two women who love Asher. The reader wants to believe that Asher is innocent – but even his mum has doubts. A major theme is that of being true to yourself. “You’re the only one who gets to decide who you’re going to be. You don’t have to be just like your father.” We must not let anyone mould us into being someone we are not. It is heartbreaking to see a character suffering at the hands of the bullies. Even their own father bullies his offspring. There is a heartbreaking scene that leaves a youngster powerless. There is the theme of domestic abuse. We witness a character who is so beaten down and destroyed, believing that she deserves what comes her way and making excuses for her abuser. All the characters were well drawn and believable. The leading pair and their mums were extremely likable. As I read, the novel elicited a variety of emotional responses from me. Did I have a favourite character? Definitely Lily. My heart just broke for her at times. Mad Honey had two jaw-dropping and defining moments within the story. I definitely did not predict either event. Mad Honey was a superb novel, drawing out many feelings from me. I can highly recommend it.

I am a big fan of Jodi Picoult and I am also a big fan of bees (but weirdly enough I don’t like honey) so I was hopeful that this would be another great book by Picoult. I was slightly apprehensive as she was a co-author but there was no way I was not going to read “Mad Honey”. The story is told by two voices. Olivia McAfee, a single mother and survivor of domestic abuse. Olivia is raising her teenage son Asher by herself whilst running the beekeeping business she has inherited, and Lily Campanello. Lily is 18-years-old and is leaving her old life behind by moving to New Hampshire with her mother Ava and her dog Boris (excellent name for a dog) Ava is always at Lily’s side, doing everything she can to give her daughter a life she dreams. The book flicks between these characters POV’s and also moves back in time using their voices to tell us a gripping story. This reminded me of Picoult of old. It felt like she was back to her earlier style and, for me, this was great. One of the things I have always liked about Picoult’s writing is that she teaches us about completely different subjects every time. This time we learnt about bees. I enjoyed the long depictions and elaborated information about beekeeping and the nature of bees and the magical healing power of honey and I love how Picoult weaves these subjects into her stories seemingly effortlessly. This book started off well and I was soon swept into the character’s lives and the drama unfolding but I lost some of the love for this story when it started adding in all these controversial, hot topics including LGBTQ, abuse, suicide, abortion, gender equality, and interracial couples. I have nothing against covering any of these subjects but it did feel like it was rammed down my throat a little. As usual, the subject matter is disturbing and passionate and the characters are highly believable and instantly relatable. We are left on the edge of our seat several times and there are the usual twists and jaw-dropping moments thrown in. I did find the ending a bit predictable as I had already guessed it but it was still interesting to see it played out. Overall, I enjoyed this book although I actually felt like the lessons on bees were woven into the story better than the constant teachings on gender equality. It did remind me of some of the older Picoult books that I loved, it wasn’t quite as good but still a good read.

This author can be hit and miss with her stories, sometimes she writes a great novel and other times an awful one, this is the former. I tend to read reviews before buying her books as I've been caught out a few times and resented paying money for trash but the 1* reviews for this book appeared to be from transgender haters so I went ahead and bought it, so glad I did, I loved it. It was beautifully written and I loved how sensitively Lily's character was written, she knew as a toddler she was a girl and never wavered, I understood why Asher loved her so much, I did too and I hadn't even 'met' her. I was happy with the ending, I didn't want her to have lost her life over something she started as a teenager, that would have been too cruel. A very well researched book and all the characters were great, not something this author often achieves.

Absolutely loved this book. Apart from it being a great story, it was very educational. Some fascinating & extremely interesting facts about bees & beekeeping, plus such enlightening facts about transgender women, who I support wholeheartedly.

This was an interesting concept but was too full of information about bees which took from the story in my opinion. I’m not anti bee but don’t want long tracts of information on them in a book of fiction - the storyline didn’t flow evenly because of these pieces appearing too often & unnecessarily at times. Pity really as the plot was interesting but not one of Jodi Picoult’s best - not familiar with co author’s work.

Originally purchased for my daughter, definitely not my typical novel but I needed some holiday reading. To my surprise I finished the book, and got educated along the way.

Another wonder from Jodi. Love them all. This was so informative.

Excelente

Echt spannende und dramatische Story

This must have been a challenging book to write considering the scope of topics and combining the work of the two authors. The story is told from the perspective of two of the characters Olivia, a beekeeper and Lily, a high school student. Their paths cross when Olivia's son Asher becomes Lily's first love and the lives of the two students and their families become intricately intertwined. The characters were very well written and provide a lot of insight into the troubled family dynamics. There were endless surprises, a lot of details about bee keeping (more that I ever wanted to know!) and a complex plot that book clubs would have an interesting time discussing.