* I am reviewing this book which I was gifted for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. *
Title: Here is the Beehive
(Bookshop UK | Hive | Goodreads | Storygraph)
Ana Kelly can deal with death. As an estate lawyer, an unfortunate part of her day-to-day is phone calls from the next of kin informing her that one of her clients has died. But nothing could have prepared Ana for the call from Rebecca Taylor, explaining in a strangely calm tone that her husband Connor was killed in an accident.
Ana had been having an affair with Connor for three years, keeping their love secret in hotel rooms, weekends away, and swiftly deleted text messages. Though consuming, they hide their love well, and nobody knows of their relationship except Mark, Connor's best friend.
Alone and undone, Ana seeks friendship with the person who she once thought of as her adversary and opposite, but who is now the only one who shares her pain -- Rebecca. As Ana becomes closer to her lover's widow, she is forced to reconcile painful truths about the affair, and the fickleness of love and desire.
Funny, frank, and strange, Sarah Crossan's moving novel is wholly original and deeply resonant.
Book Review:
I have loved a lot of Sarah Crossan's books, especially her books in verse so when I saw that she was releasing a book for adults, I jumped at the chance to review it. While there were parts of this book that I found enjoyable, Here Is The Beehive fell a little flat for me but I will still read any other books she releases.
First I'm going to start with the negatives so we can get to the stuff that I did like. Overall, I think that the book was always going to be something that I didn't like but I still wanted to support the author as I am not a massive fan of cheating, which is a massive part of the book. When it takes up so much space in the story it can distract from what good there is.
Sarah Crossan obviously knows how to write prose and poetry and this is still evident in the book but I still had some problems with it. Ana's voice is very distinctive which I can argue is a good thing because throughout I think she is a compelling character that the reader has to root for but I don't think that this happens throughout.
I found at times that Ana's voice came across as uninteresting and I didn't really want to follow her as a character in a story I didn't really care about. For me, characters are everything and when I can't connect to a character, I can't connect with the book.
This comes hand in hand with the writing which I did for the most part enjoy. Sarah Crossan knows how to craft words and verse and this is still evident throughout the book and was obviously part of why I carried on reading. It is also really short so that is also why I continued.
But I have been hooked on her writing before. I have stayed up way too late reading her books before. I know she can hook me as a reader but this just didn't do it which is so disappointing and it, in fact, took me a while to finish this one.
Maybe I just had too high expectations for this book but I know there are going to be people who love it. I just wasn't one of them.
I will of course still support Sarah Crossan in the future because I know I can love her books!
The Verdict:
Here Is The Beehive is a book that deals with cheating perfectly and should find its audience and those who love it.
Have you read Here Is The Beehive? If so, what did you think? Do you want to? Let me know in the comments.
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