Mad Honey Review

"You can cut someone out of your life, but that doesn't mean they'll cut you out of theirs."

Mad Honey

by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Genre: Murder Mystery

About: Olivia's been stung before. Not just as a hazard to being a beekeeper, but because she knows what it's like to love someone who keeps hurting her - and how impossible it seems to ever leave them. Like drinking mad honey. When her son is accused of being an abuser just like his father and possibly a murderer, she wants to believe it isn't true. But she's been stung before...

The Good

There's really great representation here that's done intelligently and sensitively. I liked a lot of the characters and found both POVs interesting to read. The mystery elements are well-thought out and the story is an important one to tell. It has great hooks and a setting that's memorable. Very engaging writing, full of empathy and heart. Lily was a stand-out character, I absolutely loved her.

The Bad

I guessed the murderer very early on and that made it a less than exciting read for me. I do think there were a lot of great suspects and good red herrings - if I hadn't of guessed correctly then I would have been racing through this and I can totally see this being an exciting read for others. I liked the solution, I just wasn't shocked by it.

The Somewhat Iffy

The honey element. I enjoyed that Olivia was a beekeeper - that made her a memorable character and there were some interesting bee facts littered in the story. The problem, for me, was the bee factoids were a constant intrusion, buzzing in and out of the story like an annoying fly. It disrupted the pace and tone a lot of the times and felt obsessive. The occasional reference would have been good, but I wasn't convinced by how much it was forced into the story.

Overall

This is a very well-thought out mystery with an important message at its heart. Clever and heartfelt, it just missed the spot for me on a few points but I can absolutely understand the hype for this one.