love and bees

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: On the surface, this is a tried-and-true trope: girl is murdered, boy is accused, mother stands by her son.  But, as one might suspect with a book by Picoult and Boylan, there is a whole lot more going on here.  There are several unexpected twists, not to mention more than a few turns.  Told in alternating chapters, Olivia, Asher's mother, tells the story going forward from Lily's death and Lily herself tells her story going backward from the same time.  Together, the two stories form a brilliant picture of Lily and Asher, together and separately, and of the difference between things that are private and things that are secret.

Are there a few hanging threads here?  Yes.  After making dramatic (re)entrances, both Lily and Asher's fathers sort of disappear.  And there's a lot in here that would, in the hands of lesser writers, be deemed pedantic, as we learn the ins and outs of beekeeping, among other topics.  Instead of feeling like information that isn't really relevant to the plot is being forced on me, as I have in other books, I just found it interesting, like I was just having a nice conversation with an acquaintance.  And I really wish I could have a nice conversation with these characters.  Or their authors.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

not a single false note

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: This is a beautiful story.  It goes something like this: First, there was Claude.  But Claude felt that being a boy wasn't quite right.  So around the start of kindergarten, Claude started wearing dresses.  Sometimes this was a big deal (for other people), sometimes it wasn't.  Claude (and Claude's parents) were just figuring it out as they went along (with the help of a very quirky (in the best way) guru cum therapist).  Not long after, Claude became Poppy, and later, the family decided that it was best if no-one knew that Poppy was ever anything but.  Secrets are hard to keep, though, and Frankel doesn't pull her punches on the consequences.

I can't speak to how well Frankel gets inside the head of a young child struggling to figure out whether they are boy, girl, both, or neither, or the head of the parents who only want to love and support that child (although that was easier for me).  What I can say is that Frankel's portrayal of Poppy and Poppy's parents, siblings, and grandmother is nuanced and both heartwrenching and heartwarming.  This book made me laugh and cry and everything in between.

PS. I actually listened to this book, and I highly recommend the audio version.  Gabra Zackman, the narrator does an amazing job giving life to the voice of each character.