Mad Honey: A Novel

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a great read! Told from two different points of view, Mad Honey constantly left me wanting more. The multi-level storytelling, layered characters, and alternating perspectives created a story that was both engaging and emotionally impactful. I also appreciated how informative the book was, offering greater insight into some of the challenges and realities transgender men and women face. It added depth to an already compelling story and gave me a lot to think about. The audiobook was fantastic, and the story flowed effortlessly from beginning to end. I found myself feeling for every character, even when they frustrated me. And then… those last 15 minutes?! 🤯 Talk about a plot twist! My rating was sitting at 4 stars, and then the ending completely blew my mind and instantly pushed it to 5 stars. Absolute mic-drop moment. 😭 Emotional, thought-provoking, and impossible to stop thinking about once it’s over.

This book came highly recommended by book club friends, and it is definitely a compelling story. I will be discussing spoilers so if you do not want to know, please do not read beyond this point. It was a very compelling story which dealt in a sensitive issue both with the question of domestic violence, its unknown and known effects on children, and transgender youth. I thought that all of these issues were dealt with in a realistic, emotional, and real way. As author Boylan is transgender, I felt like it was her chance to give transgender individuals a much-needed voice. Lily personified what so many transgender individuals who are not able to provide a mirror to their inner lives and struggles. I also appreciated how Boylan educated us that being transgender is much like anything else in life-each transgender individual is unique, do not all think the same way, and especially do not have the same journey. Another strength in this story is the real and raw exploration of domestic violence. Yes, it was difficult to read. However, I think that Picoult and Boylan did an excellent job of exploring the large questions about abuse, what makes and abuser, and most importantly, what happens to the children of abusers? I admire how Picoult and Boylan were able to bring to life all the complex emotions of a mother whose son has turned into what seems her worst nightmare. She wanted to protect her son, she doubted him, and she loved him so much that she would do anything to protect him. She had to ask herself very difficult questions and face the reality of bearing her abuser's son. I was drawn into the complexities of Olivia's emotions and felt like I completely understood them. The only flaw in the writing is that the story became a bit outrageous and sensationalistic at the end. It felt more like the unlikely end of a TV movie rather than what should have been the end to a story which could have played in any courtroom in the United States. I just felt like it could have finished a bit more realistically, because the rest of the story was so compelling. I highly recommend this story for so many reasons, you will be educated and will experience the full gamut of emotions of a mother with an impossible burden.

MAD HONEY is the second one of Jodi Picoult's books I've read, and it contains all the ingredients I've come to expect from her writing: beautiful prose, a compulsive plot line, relatable characters, and great twists. Picoult and co-author Jennifer Finley Boylan utilized a dual-timeline, multiple point-of-view approach in their writing. The result is a smooth introduction of backstory and an intriguing look at events through the eyes of several key players. The reader learns straightaway that single mom Olivia is a beekeeper and is raising teenage son Asher. Doing her trademark deep dive, Picoult provides lots of details about the lives of bees and beekeeping, and this becomes a powerful metaphor for family life and society at large. Asher is dating the multi-talented Lily, a cellist, champion fencer, and font of knowledge about various topics she's researched. Lily and her mother are newcomers to the small New Hampshire town that provides the story's backdrop, having migrated from Seattle. We learn that the motivating factor behind the move was a need to escape an abusive husband/father. Although both Lily and Asher are distanced from their fathers, we come to understand that there are very different reasons for the fractured parent-child relationships. Very little in this book is what it seems at first glance, and the authors have done a terrific job bringing the reader on a journey that reveals the truth bit by bit. There comes a point when medical information is doled out, and it is given in a sensitive, appropriate manner. I won't give spoilers, except to say that the courtroom drama is as compelling as any other part of the book, and that a murder is involved. It isn't until close to the end of the book that a definition of "mad honey" appears. "THERE IS ONE type of honey you should avoid at all costs. Mad honey comes from bees that forage on rhododendrons and mountain laurel, and it’s full of poisonous grayanotoxins. It causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, convulsions, cardiac disorders, and more. Symptoms last for twenty-four hours, and although rarely, if left untreated, can be fatal." The definition perfectly fits the final, shocking twist. I highly recommend MAD HONEY to readers who love sensitive treatments of social issues, lovely prose, and lovable but flawed characters. If you've read other books by Picoult, you'll understand exactly what this means. If not, dive in!

A wonderful book set in New Hampshire where I live. A wonderful read, and fabulous twist at the end I never saw coming. Had you guessing all the way. Loved the story intertwining beekeeping into it. And I felt educated afterwards about the experiences trans people have, for which I am grateful.

I might be in the minority when I say I didn't like this one... so much so that I dnf'd it. 🥴 The synopsis of the book is misleading. It started off strong and it seemed like a book I would actually enjoy (I tried another Jodi Picoult book and I couldn't get into it). That was until a bunch of social issues/injustice, controversial topics were thrown in including LGBTQ, abortion, abuse, and suicide. Were the authors trying to fulfill some type of quota to make sure the book is relevant?? Everything that was being added became overwhelming and made the book drag which made the enjoyability of reading go down. In a way, I felt like I was being lectured which was not working for me. However, I did enjoy the parts where I got to read about bees and beekeeping. I didn't know much about it going into this book which was fascinating. If this book was shorter and didn't seem like a lecture/biology lesson, I would've enjoyed it more. I love a good murder mystery/true crime story. I might get bashed for this review but as I said earlier, the synopsis was misleading and none of those topics is something I enjoy reading about. It is not my intention to come off as an awful person but these are just my thoughts and I struggle with putting my thoughts into words sometimes.

So, first of all, this book reminded me why I love Jodi Picoult and need to read more of her books. Picoult can be counted on to deliver a well-written, powerful, human narrative that's still a relatively easy read. Looking for a "beach read" that's great instead of trashy? JP is your woman. Here she partners with Boylan who is also a great writer, and in all honesty, it's seamless and does not for a moment read like a collab. Mad Honey is compelling from the start with hero characters including Olivia, a single mom/power beekeeper/abuse survivor, Lily, a teen savant/cellist/depressive/also survivor, and Asher, a teen Prince Charming whose hidden depths- and hidden pain- no one but Lily truly sees. Quickly this becomes a murder mystery and trial procedural, so, again, super entertaining and also emotionally intense. For the first probably half of the book, I did not want to put it down. I really want to avoid spoilers here. I will say there's a major plot twist, an interesting one, but unfortunately at this point the book takes a dive. There is SO MUCH explication to support the plot that the book becomes more of a textbook and less of a novel. For me personally I didn't need 99% of this surrounding information, it was familiar to me - and I think it would be at least understandable to anyone who would love this book. This is the point where, I think, the writers needed to decide if they would rather just tell a story and let the reader fill in, or if they needed to inform and provide massive context, and they chose the latter. The book is about 30% longer as a result (insert head-banging emoji). I really loved the writing here; the character development; and the power and empathy with which the writers communicated painful and joyful things. But *just as a novel* it's a super-flawed book: there's all this endless explication, the ending is unsatisfying, *and* you can see the real whodunit coming from miles away. If I were not such a fan of the intent here, I'd say three stars.

I tend to have a love/hate relationship with Jodi Picoult books. I live her stories, hate her endings. And I really hate that that's the first thing that comes to mind in reviewing this book. It is an amazing book. The absolute best thing I can say about Picoult is that she doesn't write the same book over and over. She tackles new topics in every book of hers that I've read, and I've read most of them. Sometimes I forget who I'm reading because every book is so different. I think even the writing style is unique to each story. But enough about Jodi, Jennifer, I'm sorry. It's your story, literally your dream child, and Jodi gets top billing on everything, even in this review. But one thing she gets absolutely right is that she couldn't have told this story without you because it isn't her story to tell. I think this is my introduction to you and I will be reading much more. I'm also sorry you didn't win the Detective Mike argument. Lol And I am curious who's idea was the ending, the reveal of the culprit, so to speak. I blamed it on your coauthor because whack endings are the one thing that you can count on in a Picoult book but not having read you before, I admit I could be wrong. Regardless it's an amazing book. To get 5* from me a book has to make me laugh and cry. And oh it did just that. I also have to have someone to root for. I loved almost all the characters and realistically every book has to have an antagonist or two, so the characters were perfect. I also should relate to it in some way no matter how small. There was a lot that could be pulled from my own story both as a child and as a mother. For some of my book club friends, to get five stars, they require a book to be something that everyone should read. Something that everyone can get something from. I haven't looked yet to see how they rated it but for me, this is one of those books. I think we live in a time when being trans or enby or anywhere in the LGBTQ+ spectrum has so much more acceptance than ever before and at the same time so much more opposition. The more acceptance anything other than the "traditional male/female sex assignment" gets, the more those that think it's truth need to fight to maintain their status quo. The strongest purpose of fiction is empathy. It's to allow ourselves to walk around in another person's shoes and find out how our preconceived notions are wrong and how they inhibit other people. Obviously if every person in the world read this book, many would identify more with Braden, or Lily's father, or Dirk and completely miss the point. One of the book club questions is, can someone like them change. It's not easy, but I have seen it happen. The reason there is more acceptance of differing genders is because people can change. But there are also people in this world like Olivia who just don't have a cl inue until they have the first conversation, until the first time they walk around in those shoes. So I do think everyone should try all these various shoes on for size.

My apologies for this review being as lengthy as it is, but I just couldn’t find anyway to shorten it. 🙃 I was immediately captivated by the storyline and the characters as the plot began to unfurl from page 1, and onward. Having said that, I’m not surprised, considering that Picoult was a contributing writer for this book. No disrespect meant toward Boylan, I’m just simply not familiar with her writing. There is a huge amount of intensity, both good and bad, as well as contentment and certainty regarding the mother/son relationship, the other mothers, and Lily (one of the key characters) as well as the strong bad-ass females that are representing for our gender. (Hoo-gah!!) There is an undeniability, together with an apprehensiveness, as to what is eventually expected to unfold as told on the "jacket cover" description provided by the publisher/writer. This begins to build as the reader is submersed further into the narrative, and as the story moves around from the POV’s provided by two main characters of the story. You’ve previously been forewarned, and conscious of what is yet to come. Even if you care to have it delayed a bit longer, it’s one of those novels you irrefutably can not put down. It’s like watching a passenger train on the tracks, knowing it’s about to derail, and it’s evident there’s nothing you can do to stop it, yet you can’t turn away from the horror that’s about to unfold before your eyes. There is one major key genre that is curiously left out of any of the previews, but to have it included, would destroy what is to develop at a later stage. It would’ve been a HUGE spoiler. For that reason, it makes it even more difficult in writing this review. I honor the writers, and will not mention it here either. All I can say is to continue reading through, until the end to see why my mind was so completely blown! The ending alone regarding the responsibility of Lily’s death, is another mind stunner. I also want to mention, that while reading, I was very curious and hoped to be enlightened as to who wrote which sections of the book. Thank goodness I always read what the authors write in the the "Dear readers:" section, as will as anything else that follows. I unequivocally feel the need to include something Jennifer Finney Boylan states in her ending message/notes: "All of us have something in our hearts like a flower that cannot bloom because it is held in secret. The adventure of life can be to get that thing out of the darkness where it lies and let the sun shine on it. So it can go back inside your heart facing the right direction." WOW! Doesn’t it appear we all have that abysmal, cavernous secret buried so far down, it’ll never see the light of day again, if it were up to us? Imagine considering her outlook toward it instead? Just something to ponder at a later date, possibly… And I also feel the need to share something that Picoult wrote in her ending message/notes: "What would I like you to take away from this novel? Absolutely nothing. I’d like you to give—a chance, a thought, a damn. Like gender, difference is a construct. We are all flawed, complicated, wounded dreamers; we have more in common with one another than we don’t. Sometimes making the world a better place just involves creating space for the people who are already in it. —Jodi Picoult" Another WOW moment! I rarely give out 5 star ratings and have a system of 3 key qualifiers, one of which is: "Those that profoundly affected my whole being while reading, and left an intense deeply-rooted impression as well." This one is a 5 star rating for sure, and I significantly advocate, encourage, and recommend this as a Must Read Novel.

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.

Just finished the book and wow! It was educational, eye opening, and came to a bittersweet end. What more, I realised I had seen an episode of Oprah from 2005 that featured author Jennifer Boylan after looking her up, what a lady she is and the life she's created. Also, Jodi Picoult doing her fabulous thing as usual. Highly recommended.

Excelente

I loved this book because it opened my mind on so many issues. Specially knowing that in some places, this book is banned, I felt privileged to be able to read it. Learn about minority communities like the one discussed in the book was mind opening. This is a book that makes you look at the society with more compassion and understanding. Loved this book.

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.