The Secret Life of Bees Reviews

• Honey for the soul

  
  By A1DGGMMI8B5DER on 2002-01-29
  If you liked Kaye Gibbon's "Ellen Foster" then Lily Owens will capture your heart. When her father, T. Ray, punished her by making her kneel on grits, I immediately knew that she was a survivor and he was a coward. May, June, and August Boatwright, the beekeeping sisters, and their Black Madonna honey were exquisite. May's tortured soul taught me about empathy gone awry. Sue Monk Kidd's strong southern storytelling skills are reminiscent of Reynolds Price and Harper Lee. In this her first novel, the writing isn't perfect but it tugged at my heart the way Barbara Kingsolver's "Pigs in Heaven" did. The characters, the time period and the small town setting made it similar to "To Kill a Mockingbird." This novel should be read by parents and teens together. I hope Kidd plans a sequel. I care so much about the characters that I yearn to know about their future lives.
  
  

• Starts with a bang and then ......

  
  By AVJDSIQPP87B9 on 2003-05-18
  This book came highly recommended by most of the reviewers on Amazon. That coupled with the fact that it was a New York Times Best Sellor lead me to believe that it would be really great. And for the first third of the book that's what I thought. In viewing the Amazon reviews I noted a few critics but blew them off. About a third of the way into the book my mind kept going back to the critics and I kept thinkig how right they were.

  The first part of the story about Lily's life with her father and her "escape" with Rosaleen is intriguing. It's well done and keeps your interest. But when Lily and Rosaleen get to the "pink house" and are taken in by the sisters everything seems to go into fantasy land.

  I am African American and went to college in 1963 so I remember those years well. In all of the turmoil that the author says in going on in the town, Lily and Zach are just driving around town and no one notices, especially in the scene where the bottle is thrown at the white men. Now this is not that long after Emmette Till is lynched for looking at a white woman in Mississippi. And what about Zach's parents? The author must have gotten the image or Rosaleen off an old Aunt Jemimah box. Are we to beleive that Rosaleen had no family, friends or obligations even if she was in trouble with the law.

  For the second third of the book I just wanted to yell out at Lily, "TELL THE TRUTH." Here these folks have taken you in and you continue to lie and decieve them. When she finally finds out about her mother, I wanted to yell out "GET OVER IT." And the coincidence of Lily finding August is just to far fetched to believe. The author could have left some clues for her to follow, but just to think that she walks into this town and finds them is too much to believe.

  The story is a nice fantasy but the characters are not real at all. The whole deal about the cult of Mary and the black women isn't even believable. And how the heck did Lily get registered in school? She is a minor and the Boatwright's had no legal custody of her. Her father could have easily gone to court and gotten her back. And one more point that bothered me. There is a real problem in the story about time. I was reading along and thought long periods of time had passed and then the author tells you it's only been a week or a few days. The time sequence is very confusing.

  I hope that I'm not the only one that feels this way. But as far as I'm concerned this book is totally overated.
  
  

• The Secret LIfe of Bees

  
  By ALG63ETJZK78 on 2003-05-02
  "The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness."

  The Secret Life of Bees is a wonderful story that brings hope and strength to those that are in the midst of a journey through life. The author, Sue Monk Kidd, does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the story. By the end of the novel, the reader has developed a relationship with the main character, Lily Owens, and leaves you wondering what else lies ahead in Lily�s life. The story begins during the summer of 1964 in South Carolina. We are immediately drawn into Lily�s struggle with a vague memory of the death of her mother. Her mother was shot and killed in a freak accident when she was only four years old. Throughout Lily�s journey we discover more and more about her mother and her death.
  Lily�s journey begins when she goes into town with her African American housekeeper, Rosaleen. The Civil Rights Act has just been passed and Rosaleen is going into town to register to vote. On their way into town Rosaleen gets into a fight with three of the most racist men in town and ends up getting both Lily and herself thrown in jail. Lily�s abusive father, T. Ray, bails her out but on their way back they get into an argument about Lily�s mother. ��Not funny?� he yelled. �Not funny? Why, it�s the funniest goddamn thing I ever heard: you think your mother is your guardian angel.� He laughed again. �The woman could have cared less about you.�� This was absolutely devastating for Lily to hear. She knew she could not stay with T. Ray and live with his physical and emotional abuse. She also knew she needed to find the truth about what happened to her mother.
  She decides to break Rosaleen out of jail and travel to Tiburon, South Carolina. It is here where she meets the calendar sisters, May, June and August. While living with them Lily becomes engulfed in a completely different lifestyle from which she came from. She becomes an incredible beekeeper and develops strong relationships with the sisters. Throughout her stay with the sisters she begins to learn more about the truth of her mother�s life and the mystery of her death.
  Kidd does a remarkable job of drawing parallels between the life of bees and the life that Lily is leading. Each chapter begins with a quote about bees that directly relates to what happens to Lily in that chapter. The struggle that Lily went through when her mother was killed is like the struggle a hive goes through when they lose their queen. �A queenless colony is a pitiful and melancholy community; there may be a mournful wail or lament from within�.Without intervention, the colony will die. But introduce a new queen and the most extravagant change takes place.�
  While there is no real replacement for a lost love one, Lily finds an almost motherly comfort within the calendar sisters. Their relationships grow stronger until Lily begins to feel as if she is a member of the family. �It was how Sugar-Girl said what she did, like I was truly one of them. [�] They didn�t even think of me being different.� As Lily begins to gain the trust of the sisters she tells them the entire story about her mother, and her leaving T. Ray, and discovers more about her mother than she could have ever imagined.
  
  

• Disappointing

  
  By A3UMY9WIWIWQD9 on 2003-06-11
  When I picked up this book at the library, no less than 3 women standing around the counter cood "Ooooh, that's a wonderful book!" I couldn't wait to read it. I'm very disappointed with this unbelievable and often silly story.
  
  

• A Heartwarming Read

  
  By A2RMUH7O7PBYUL on 2002-05-29
  The Secret Life of Bee's is an enduring story set on a southern bee farm. The characters will enlighten and warm your heart. The Secret Life of Bee's is similar to many southern stories; however, the bee lore that Kidd interjects throughout makes the book unique and interesting. The Secret Life of Bee's is a heartwarming, feel good read. There are universal lessons about family and self throughout.

  The main character, Lily Owens is fleeing an abusive father and an all-consuming truth surrounding her mother's death. The Secret Life of Bee's is set in the 1960's when racial tensions and violence were at an all time high. Lily and her caretaker Rosaleen, leave town after a violent encounter with racists while Rosaleen was attempting to exercise some of her newly granted freedoms.

  Since the death of her mother, Lilly has a few precious clues as to her last days. The clues lead Lily and Rosaleen to Tiburon, South Carolina where they meet the `calendar sisters', May, June, and August Boatwright. The Boatwright sisters operate a successful Bee farm. Lily and Rosaleen are welcomed to the farm with open arms. Through her work on the farm, Lily is able to examine her past and begin to trust as she finds love again.

  The Secret Life of Bee's is the story of mothers. The reader will travel with Lily as she experiences each of the four remarkable women ~ Rosaleen, May, June, and August. Each of these women is a teacher and guide to Lily. It is through her experiences that she is able to discern that a mother is more than just a biological bond.

  A great debut for Sue Monk Kidd. I cannot help thinking that I would have loved to learn more about Boatwright sisters...maybe there is room for another story!
  
  

• The Secret Life of Bees
  By on 2004-01-18
  This book is an idyllic model of white/black America. I don't understand why it is rated so high. Some parts of the book were so unbelievable, like when Rosaleen spat on the white men's shoes or when the young black men threw a can at the group of older white men. Who would do that in the deep south in such an unsettling time? I also feel disturbed that the focal point of the story is this innocent, white heroine. It is unsettling to me how many stories of that time focus on the white person: The Cider House Rules, The Power of One, The Secret Life of Bees. The book was somewhat entertaining to read, but very unbelievable.
  
  
• Disappointing, Predictable, and Racist
  By A2TWIGJ1RRCFS1 on 2003-08-04
  I was disappointed by Sue Monk Kidd's novel. While it started out interesting and even exciting, it soon devolved into a dull, predictable tale that seemed a cut and paste of other, better written coming of age stories. Additionally, the author fetishizes black women throughout the novel in ways that manage to be both trite and offensive. It's racist in a "mystical negro" way, not a "let's join the Klan" way (see Toni Morrison's essays about the portrayals of African Americans in film for an articulate and complete discussion of this issue).

  In 'Bees' there is the shockingly unnuanced 'mammy' character of Rosaleen, written about as a simple-minded and unpredictable, yet also nurturing and uncritical of the white girl who employs and 'rescues' her. The story is rife with boring and contrived lessons about the earth, nature, and life that four black women teach Lily. One would think that the black folks in this book had nothing better to do than sit around and teach white people how to be happy and connected to the earth in the 1960s American South. Racism is portrayed as a few crazy and hate filled hicks attacking black people who are trying to vote. It is that. But it's also so much more subtle and pervasive than that, and Kidd let's Lily (and the mostly white readers of the book) completely off the hook. The real kicker for me was that August, the most 'magical' black woman in the novel, and ironically the one with the closest chance at being a black character with her own agency, unchained by Kidd's racist portrayals, in the end explains that the reason she loves Lily is because August was Lily's mother's nanny/mammy, and she loves Lily "just like" she loved her mother. In other words, as her servant, her mammy. . . and how much of a leap is it to as a slave to a master? I was frankly shocked at how problematic this novel was. If you are at all aware of how racism functions in the world, or if you are someone who prefers original and interesting writing, I suggest you stop exploring this book --save yourself an irritating read.
  
  

• Didn't it bother anyone else?
  By A1SFCLNK88SJT9 on 2002-03-21
  One star is for the lovely cover and for some nice turns of phrase.
  But otherwise, I feel badly misled by the other reviewers' 4-star ratings for this book. First of all, I found the portrayal of Rosaleen, the black woman who takes care of Lily, to be really insulting. She is the first black character we meet in the book and she is written as a not-too-bright child. In addition, I did not believe for a minute that a black woman in the South in 1964 (Civil Rights Act or no Civil Rights Act) would put herself in the position of danger that author Kidd creates to set the story in motion. Rosaleen, alone with Lily in the middle of nowhere, is insulted and confronted by a group of white men loitering at a gas station. Her reaction is to goad them with increasingly inflammatory actions. Well, gosh golly, even 14-year-old white girl, Lily, had enough sense to know what a bad idea all that was. Then Lily comes to the rescue with Rosaleen passively following whatever plan Lily has in mind. Sheesh! The rest of the story really doesn't ever redeem itself.
  Sorry, this book is tripe.
  
  
• As trite as Bridges of Madison County and twice as dull
  By on 2003-12-23
  This is a poorly researched novel that attempts to be profound but merely succeeds in being mediocre at best. Way too many metaphors (bees, mermaids, madonnas, hats) that don't make a point. What an inadequate tribute to the strong, intelligent black women of the south. My bet is that most of the women who so love this book are white.
  
  Furthermore, the author tries to convey that the young girl is a heroine. Why..because she was a victim? Is that heroism? In fact many of the women in the book were victims but instead of giving them credible personalities with dignity, the author made them superstitious caricatures of what could have been heroic black women. And the long gone mother? What is there to know about her? Another victim that allegedly held answers. Answers to what? How to make honey? This book is so disjointed and pointless; the only moral is: If you want to read about an egaging young girl in the south go read "To Kill a Mockingbird". That is literature; this is a soap opera.
  
  
• Just How Hard DO African Americans Have to Work?
  By A2J9ZR2N0QSVUQ on 2004-03-18
  I found this book to be repugnant on so many levels it's difficult for me to begin. Giving new meaning to the term "magical Negro" the book follows the misdadventures of a motherless white girl as she meanders through the deep south of the 60's. She is rescued from her personal history of a depressed mom and abusive dad by the most stereotypical African American women this side of Gone with the Wind.

  I guess cleaning houses, getting denied decent jobs and dealing with virulent racism isn't enough of a challenge for these women in Kidd's eyes. They get to work overtime to harbor a teenage white girl as she searches for her "inner mother".

  This book left me wishing that MY inner mother had spoken up soon enough to save me a wasted $12.95.
  
  

• The Secret Behind the Book
  By on 2004-07-27
  18/07/04
  
  Imagine a book completely and wholly unlike any that you are accustomed to reading.... A book full of divine detail, yet at the same time smooth flowing and not at all cluttered. This is exactly what Sue Monk Kidd has accomplished with her novel, The Secret Life of Bees. I personally felt in the beginning that this piece of literature was not for me.... I assumed it would be a stereotypical teenage girl with stereotypical teenage problems. But after the first sentence, even, I was proven wrong. This book made me think. It made me think about how life must be for those who live in a different kind of household, made me feel pity almost for all the characters in the story.... Including T. Ray.
  I was surprised a good many times while reading The Secret Life of Bees, from the way that Lily blossoms into a young lady, to the shocking truth behind her mother's secret life away from marriage. I felt almost like I was making all these little discoveries myself, instead of simply reading about them on paper.
  While the novel was very well-written and entertaining, I did find one small affair that I, as an individual, didn't enjoy so much. The typical topic of `black` people and `white` people becoming great friends was that topic. The story focuses too much on that aspect, in my opinion, and I feel that it should not be such an oddity as it is perceived as in this novel. Its not just the time period, which is supposed to be of a time when prejudice was rampant, that traces out this sort of relationship to be strange. The actual writing by Kidd epitomizes that this type of relationship is abnormal, which is slightly racist. These are simply my personal feelings on the matter, of course. All in all, however, The Secret Life of Bees earns my respect and approval as a novel for the aspiring reader.
  
  
  
• quick read but too simple
  By A2GPJR489OIH42 on 2003-08-05
  I have friends who have told me this book was simply wonderful. Although this was a quick, fun read, I have to disagree.

  This really reads like a young adult fiction book...we are told the story from the viewpoint of a 14 year old girl named Lily Owen.
  Lily has a troubled (to say the least) childhood, and she runs off to stay with a trio of black sisters (named May, June and August). There she makes discoveries about her past, and about life in general.

  Although I thought there were sweet moments in the book, I felt it was all too simple, and as stated earlier, I felt like I was reading a book best written for a much younger audience.

  I also could not shake the idea that I felt this novel portrayed the black characters in a very stereotyped way. I am not black, but I felt frustrated reading this book, and I found it all somehow insulting.

  Again, this is an entertaining, quick read. I would recommend it as a "coming of age" book, but the stereotypes did bother me quite a bit.
  
  

• Getting drowned in far too much love and honey
  By A2EEUQ81DTY7G3 on 2003-10-19
  I almost felt that I had been dripped and bathed in honey after finishing this book. The syrupiness, sweetness and triteness is just piled on in all its glory in this story of fourteen year old Lily, and her journey of self-discovery. This novel, bathed in fake sentiment, is just so totally cloying in attitude and tone, and it is probably one of the worst books I've read this year. What I find really insulting is that this kind of material is so popular and gets so much coverage when there is so much better quality literary fiction around - some of which I review - that you can really sink your literary chops into. Most of the characters are terribly staid stereotypes - the nasty, ill educated, violent and intolerant white folks, who feel threatened by integration and the blowsy, colorful, religiously inclined African American women who are full of unconditional love and understanding in the face of adversity.

  When Rosaleen is brutally beaten at the police station, I found it absolutely unbelievable that not one individual came forward and spoke out at the injustice of this - they may not intervened, but they certainly would not have benignly stood by and let this happen without saying something. I also found it inconceivable that Lily's father was so unbelievably bad, without sufficient explanation. Yes, a part of him blamed Lily for her mother's death, but there was also no capacity for redemption built into his character at all. Monk Kidd writes colourfully and obviously with great passion, but her thematic landscape is in a severe and stark black and white.

  In all fairness though, The Secret Life of Bees does have some redeeming factors. I thought Monk Kidd did a good job of setting the action against the racial unrest and bourgeoning civil rights era of nineteen sixty four. We really get a sense of the period - the signing of the civil rights act, a young Walter Cronkite on television, and the robotic exploration of the moon, in preparation for the planned moon landing. There's also a nice lyrical quality to Monk Kidd's writing with some expressive and poetic descriptions of South Carolinian countryside, along with T. Ray's peach fields, the pink house and, of course, the bee hives - the whirling clouds of bees, the scent of honey and the bee hum. There are still, however, not enough qualities in this book to recommend it - it's pretty much a contrived, hackneyed, and cliched story which reeks of weakness and mediocrity.

  Michael
  
  

• Sentimentality sells!
  By on 2004-02-24
  As a former high school librarian, I read many adolescent novels, and picking up this one, I felt that I had read it before. In these books the young girl (usually ) is an outsider with literary pretensions who is on an emotional quest and is a humorous commentator on the adults around her. I'm just surprised to see this kind of story marketed to and embraced by adults. Throughout my career I was dismayed at the Disneyfication of children's literature, the substitution of wholesome, sweet, romanticized, sentimental fiction for more realistic, complex literature. This literature has an infantilizing effect on our youth which is not harmless. Now we see this syrupy literature frequently on adult best seller lists. It depresses me to see the tide of positive reviews for this book because it suggests that readers uncritiically accept a trite vision of the world because it is unthreatening and flattering to one's preconceived notions. There's much better literature out there if one is willing to open one's mind to more honest , edgier, less cutesy fare.
  
  
• Enraging.
  By on 2004-06-30
  I mistakenly picked up a copy of this book over Christmas, thinking it was Myla Goldburg's Bee Season. Unfortunately, I've yet to read Ms. Goldburg's book, and, likewise as unfortunately, I DID read Ms. Kidd's. The plot unfolds as unrealistically and unoriginally as a Lifetime movie, and as the book nears completion, it gets little better. Make no mistake -- Ms. Kidd is smart, and she's done her research (the main character's name is Lily Melissa -- Lily being a flower sacred to the virgin Mary, and Melissa meaning 'honey bee'), but even those interesting sidenotes cannot save this book from hollow, empty sentimentality. Lily, like all the characters, is one dimensional and unbelievable. The book is laced with religious, specifically Catholic, undertones, which on their own would not be a problem, but Ms Kidd deals with them in such as way as to render them meaningless and amorphous. Don't get me wrong. When I started this book, I enjoyed the passages she quotes from other authors' works on bees and beekeeping, and especially how the chapters reflect and interpret these quotes. But after the first three or four chapters, the tactic falls flat and the story becomes ho-hum. This book is your basic formulaic poor southern white-girl novel -- smarter than average, more observant than average white South Carolina girl has mean daddy who beats, if-not-sexually-abuses-her, she runs away and finds redemption in an unlikely place. Please don't read this. I never write reviews, but this book so enraged me, I felt the need to warn others: steer clear of this "modern classic". This bee isn't buzzworthy.
  
  
• I've seen less holes in Swiss cheese
  By A30ZPSYOGFJXR6 on 2005-11-17
  I love coming-of-age stories, and as an ex-teenage girl, i always find some rapport with these kinds of characters. But this book was a big disappointment. Right off the bat you get the picture: Lily yearns for a mother she accidentally killed as a toddler. Her father is a sadistic monster. She runs away from home after getting in trouble with her housekeeper Rosaleen. And here is where my troubles begin:
  
  Rosaleen, who besides being grossly obese, is a black woman in South Carolina in 1964, dares confront and antagonize three racist bullies with Lily at her side. Of course she gets the beating of a lifetime. But i don't care how proud she was or how many times she may have traveled through time and space and listened to Bob Marley sing Get Up Stand Up, that's when my willing suspension of disbelief flew out the window.
  
  It did not get any better from there. Lily and Rosaleen go on the lam and end up at the house of the Boatwright sisters. Lily says: "We ran away from home and don't have any place to go". And August Boatwright, a perfect stranger, replies: "Well, you can stay here till you figure out what to do". How realistic is that?!?! Even if it starts making sense later on in the story, when a reader is faced with such an absurd situation, it is very difficult to recover.
  
  There were many other gaps for me. Lily, who started being quite a fun character (justifying Rosaleen's attack to Brother Gerald, or the whole escape scene), ends up being such a dud. Her attitude went beyond being a confused teen. This was just muddled writing. The whole core of the story, the truth about Lily's mom, ended up being nothing but a deflated story, recounted in just a few pages in such a drab environment. The Boatwright household was just like Disneyland, only with a whole bunch of weird mysticism and folklore thrown in. In a sense, the parts about the Daughters of Mary reminded me of How to Make an American Quilt. There was no subtlety of message here. Lily the orphan ends up with a dozen mothers at the end.
  
  Some characters were just gratuitous. April and May, totally irrelevant. Rosaleen, who started as such a key figure in Lily's life, becomes wallpaper after glamorous and quasi-perfect August appears. June's fiery animosity is addressed in passing as almost nothing. And for a while it seemed like June was going to end up strangling Lily!
  
  The ending was predictable and anti-climactic in the extreme.
  
  To me it is amazing the incredible success that this book had. A novel with these many holes in it would have gotten a C+ in any self-respecting English Composition class of my day.
  
  
• Not Worth the Time
  By A2XKTNYWJXA9O8 on 2005-01-31
  I finished this book only in an effort to be able to give a full opinion of it, I wouldn't have otherwise. It came recommended by a number of people, but 1/4 of the way through I had trouble understanding why. The idea was interesting enough: a young motherless girl leaves her abusive father with the black woman who cares for her after a racial incident in her town. She goes to a town in South Carolina seeking information about her dead mother. Unfortunately, what could have been a promising book and a number of problems.
  
  First, although I think Sue Monk Kidd is a nice writer, I found it hard to believe that the narrator she created would have had some of the involved, observant thoughts Ms. Kidd gave her. She was not nearly as perceptive as many passages in the book would lead you to believe. It can be difficult to write a teenaged narrator, so I could cut Ms. Kidd slack for that.
  
  What troubled me far more than that (and led me to roll my eyes dozens of times) were her chracterizations of the black people. Four black women and a young black man were integral parts of the story, yet none of them were fully developed. They were stock characters, never fully fleshed out, never created to play more than one note in the narrative. August is the sage, June is frigid and stern, Rosaleen is the Sapphire/mammy, and May is the eccentric.
  
  Also, as another reviewer noted this was South Carolina in the 1960's, how in the world would a white girl have lived with these black women for all that time? How would she have managed to drive around with a black boy and not be pulled over by the police or caused him to be strung up? How did these black women never say a thing to her about getting involved with him? They would have lived under Jim Crow for too many years to have not seen it as a safety issue. And how did these black women (and their female ancestors) manage to keep this land and honey business going, all the while selling to white people? No one ever came to harass them, used racial slurs, nothing? Where was that struggle? There were probably some places August couldn't have even walked the front door of, much less convinced to sell her products. It just became more and more ludicrous to me as the book went on. Scenes in the beginning of the book showed a small portion of what it was like to be black in the south, but in general there was a lack of racial awareness and seemingly a knowledge of history on Ms. Kidd's part that frustrated and angered me.
  
  In the end, despite her story of racial harmony, Ms. Kidd created a white centered narrative. She did so not by having a white girl as the narrator, I have no problem with that, but by not working to create multi-dimensional characters or by having a full understanding of the kind of lives these women would have lived. She even gave T. Ray, Lilly's father, more than one side, punishing, but still a man who had at some point truly loved Lilly's mother. Even Lilly's mother took on more dimensions,and she was dead. Why didn't this happen for any of the black characters?
  
  Thoroughly disappointing, I wouldn't recommend it.
  
  
• The fantasy of the black nanny who truly loves the little white girl
  By AFEMRTQO97NP9 on 2005-07-08
  This is a beautifully written book, but it's a fantasy only a white girl could have constructed. All of the African-American women in the book exist for one reason... to love and support Lily, the very white girl at the center of the story. Forget the horrors of racism or what these women suffer in unreconstructed South Carolina. No, the book is all about Lily's problems, how she feels, what she needs, and what the black women can give her. She uses them, and they ask nothing in return.
  
  This is the ultimate delusion of so many well-meaning white little girls in the South for many generations: that the servants who work for their parents really love them and would sacrifice anything for them. Early in the book Lily rejoices that Rosaleen loves her "beyond all reason." Although of course many African-American women domestic workers in the South were kind and caring, they also for the most part did not fall in love with their privileged white charges, reveling in the joy of helping these beloved little white girls obtain more and more. This (thankfully) only happens in books.
  
  I cannot imagine African-American women having the slightest interest in this story. It is a white child's Uncle Remus fantasy, and it makes me sad that readers could possibly imagine it would be meaningful to women of color. Most would find it tiresome and even offensive.
  
  I was horrified to see Lily use women like August as therapists to absorb her grief and suffer with her in her agony. Never does August divulge her own problems and ask for help. Never does troubled sister May find someone to speak other-worldly wisdom and ameliorate her pain. No, it's just a book full of caring, giving magical black people, there to pave the white girl's path to glory. And no matter how well written or wonderfully realized it might be, at its core it is as self-congragulatory and even racist as the South it rails against.
  
  
• Blah....
  By on 2003-09-29
  I must admit that I was hooked for about the first 75 pages. Monk provides all of the details and characters that make very rich and entertaining stories. However, after page 75 my disappointment grew with each turn of the page...then turned to frustration that a potentially great story fell flat. I just kept waiting for something, anything interesting to happen. The character and storyline developments are painfully slow and at times the writing is too obviously contrived. I really expected more out this one after hearing and reading the reviews. Frustration and boredom finally won. I just couldn't finish this book because I honestly did not care what happened to the characters and couldn't tolerate the writing to appreciate the deeper message that I am sure is in there somewhere. I flipped to the back of the novel and noticed that there were high school english class type dicsussion questions. AHA! If you are out of high school, don't waste your time with this one...there are much better reads to spend your time with!
  
  
• The secret's out
  By on 2003-11-18
  Honey, this could bee the worst book ever. I'm not pollen your leg. Don't bee-lieve the buzz. Hive your children. Don't wax me why everybeedy stings this is such a good book. Wasp up with that?
  
  
• Hmmm...
  By ANVECLORUMMBF on 2003-12-29
  Lily, 14, lives with her unloving father on his peach farm. He leads her to believe she accidentally shot her mother when she was 4 (the writer hints he may himself have done the deed, although we never find out for sure) and tells her that her mother walked out on her before that. The main issue troubling Lily - whether she was loved by her mother or not - forms the main core of the book. Lily's black maid, Rosaleen, is arrested for an out-of-character incident while trying to register as a voter, and is put in jail. Lily falls out with her father, runs away from home, springs Rosaleen from captivity as she leaves, heads off to Tiburon, and eventually settles down with sisters running a honey farm there, with various experiences added in, and finally uncovers some of her mother's past. Lily is (yawn) yet another book character who wants to become a writer (it would be nice to read more books where that isn't the case).

  The writer sets out to manipulate the reader's feelings from the outset, and then tries to play on them throughout. Lily is minus a mother, and (what's more!) her mother walked out on her and (what's more!) she may have killed her mother and (what's more!) her father doesn't love or appreciate her. "Feel sorry for me please" is what is required of the reader. After 300 pages of this, the intelligent reader gets a bit tired of it. "Get over it, Lily!"

  This book is really a girly book about feelings, most suitable for teenage girls of about 14 to 16 rather than anyone more mature, playing on their own feelings by creating a continuing cynical search for our sympathy, and mainly dealing with subject matter which would be of more interest to females than males. The plot is narrow, too simplistic and uninteresting (an easy escape from jail; Lily and Rosaleen easily taken in at the honey farm) and eventually becomes tiresome. The writing is simple and shallow. The religious elements are just silly. Men are relegated to the bad guys or to minor characters in the book (I was left wondering, does the writer have some personal issue with men? If so, it shows through in her writing).

  Some amateurish aspects of the writing interfere with enjoyment of the book too. Dozens of phrases (e.g. in similes or thoughts) are employed which are meaningless or are wide of the mark or are badly written, and which cause the reader to pause and say, `actually, that idea doesn't really make much sense!' or which are simply silly. Also, rather too often, Lily is made into an omniscient mindreader by the writer, being able to detect the thoughts of another person merely by observing some vague movement of the face or lips.

  Lily herself isn't a very appealing or likeable character, and we don't really get to know her very well except from what the writer tells us by way of reaction to her experiences. She tells lies. She steals (e.g. fans/snuff). She has a tantrum (the honey throwing incident). She is too self-centred. It doesn't occur to her after she runs away to get word to her father immediately that she is safe, so she's selfish or inconsiderate too. Eventually she comes across as a somewhat tiresome, shallow, silly girl. The writing is mainly self-centred autobiography on her part. Why should we be interested in her? The writer tries to make her main appeal to the reader her hardship of being motherless, unloved by her father, a runaway and maybe having accidentally shot her mother, but she bleats on about those things so much that in the end, after 300 pages of this, the intelligent reader loses sympathy for her and her teenage angst. "Get over it!"

  The quotes from various bee books heading up each chapter unfortunately rarely have much connection with the text of the chapter following, so they become pointless. It would have been more sensible to use a quote which actually fits neatly with the chapter text below it.

  This is a reasonable attempt at a first novel, but it was rather slow and unexciting and shallow and there isn't much to be gained by reading it. The book lacks intellectual depth. The writing is weak in places, and the book doesn't really have anything to say: it is just about obvious interplay and feelings generated between particular characters in a life situation. The writer could usefully be more careful to employ phrases which actually mean something or which are true, rather than being so vague or inaccurate in places that phrases end up annoying the reader who is reading the text carefully. A more involved plot, and not so much time dwelling on the same points, and less time trying to found a novel on the tugging of our heart strings, would have been better.

  Whether or not this book appeals to any particular reader depends on what that person wants to get out of reading novels. Some people may delight in it. The prolonged attempt to manipulate the reader's sympathy towards the main character purely by reason of her past eventually irritated me and I couldn't wait to reach the last page so this read was finished.
  
  

• What's the buzz all about?
  By A32Z5FZ6UMUMNT on 2006-02-15
  Very disturbing to think that a book so superficial would be called a classic. Are that many readers so shallow? This doesn't even come close to "To Kill A Mockingbird." There are so many areas that bothered me in "The Secret Lives of Bees" that I'm not sure where to begin. So I'll start by saying that the characters are one dimensional and the events that unfold are unbelievable. I know this is a work of fiction, but SOME things need to ring true. Not all "good guys" are women and/or black; and not all "bad guys" are men or authority figures. I felt that Sue Monk Kidd was afraid of true conflict in the story, and that she thought she could write about a time period without any research. Sorry, I just don't buy it that Rosaleen would dump her snuff cup on the shoes of the white men. Or that breaking Rosaleen out of the hospital is as easy as making a phone call. Or that she and Zack would casually drive through town without a thought about it. August, for as all-knowing and wise as she's supposed to be, just didn't have much worldly advice to pass along to Lily on her behavior. June's character, had it not done a complete switch (for no reason other than the ending was coming soon), might have foreseen trouble coming, yet she winds up apologizing to Lily for not welcoming her right away. And what about May? Wasn't it strange she had such a strong reaction when she found out Zack was arrested? There are too many other sorrows far worse that didn't send her over the edge. Her note also seemed out of character - supposedly she was "simple minded." By the time I got to Zack's release from jail, I'd had it. I couldn't bring myself to read another word. Besides, I'm sure I know how the book will end - the whole story is leading up to a very pat ending with everything coming out just right - for Lily.
  
  
• Share this with your daughter
  By on 2002-12-18
  I gave this book to my 15 year old daughter to read and she came back after finishing it exclaiming, " All those mothers!" Motherhood and its powerful influence (both good and bad) on each of us is a central theme to the story and the quest for all that a mother implies (safety, acceptance, unconditional love)draws the reader immediately to Lily Owen, the 14 year old narrator. I thought this book had beautiful imagery, a nice balance of goodness overcoming loss, and most of all conceded to the power of redemption. Sue Monk Kidd did a wonderful job weaving the racial tensions of the 1960's into the voice of the main character and bringing us, the reader, along for the ride as the young girl discovers what it feels like to be discriminated against herself, the dangers of racial inequality, and the basic human elements that bind us to each other despite color or class. This story is about a journey of growth and addresses that fundamental need in each of us to find answers to the questions of who we are. I have found, months later, that The Secret Life of Bees is still with me and I recommend it over and over again.
  
  
• Romance novel appeal
  By A33UUAYWCPSOKG on 2003-07-20
  I had a nagging feeling during this book of reading a fairy tale or a romance novel. I guess superficiality best describes it. Even though it was given historical parameters, the one-dimensional characters were very out of sync with the times: Rosaleen's behaviour with the white men, the black boy who threw the bottle, and Lily and Zach's uncommented-upon public appearances. Rosaleen, as a woman of color without a community until she met August, et al, really disturbed me. My nagging feeling was explained with the author's response to an interviewer: "I conjured most of the novel straight out of my imagination, inventing from scratch...".
  
  
• Sickly Sweet
  By on 2004-01-26
  Okay, I'm obviously in the minority here, but I found this book to be a huge disappointment (especially given all the hype surrounding it!)
  The reasons I disliked The Secret Lives of Bees are probably the same reasons why so many readers loved it: 1) the characters were instantly recognizable as either good or evil (no confusing ambiguities here); 2) simplistic, easy-to-understand symbolism abounded (in my opinion, it was heavy-handed, but I suppose many readers don't mind that); 3) the author promotes a sugar-coated (sorry, make that honey-coated) brand of feminism that presumably makes some women want to shout "you go, girl!", without risking any real changes to the establishment; 4) the plot ends in a satisfyingly tidy and conventional triumph of good over evil, with no loose ends and again, no troubling moral ambiguities. (Why hasn't Hollywood latched onto this plot yet? I'm sure the rights to the feel-good movie of the year have already been sold to the highest bidder)
  To the thousands of you who apparently loved this novel, I apologize. I'm probably just a cold-hearted cynic. And if all you want from a novel is a simple, entertaining read with a happy ending, then please run --don't walk-- to buy The Secret Life of Bees. Personally, I want more.
  
  
• What A Crock...and I Don't Mean Honey....
  By A3OYGIHB8KH075 on 2005-01-20
  Okay, I wanted to read something, anything, this summer while I was sick. I ordered "The Secret Life of Bees" and started reading it with great enthusiam. I loved Ms. Monk Kidd's charming, southern voice. Lily Owens reminded me of Scout from "To Kill a Mockingbird" but obviously without Scout's adoring father Atticus.
  I enjoyed Lily's heroism in rescuing Rosaleen. I was fascinated by the legend of the Black Madonna and the journey she inspired. I was even intrigued by the female household that nurtured Lily inside the pink house her mother had visited.
  But the honey worshipping cult?!?!? Puh-leeze. That's where the book went south for me--no pun intended. Then unmasking the Black Madonna as a ship ornament--what was left of the Madonna's mystique? Instead of mystery and enlightenment, you're left with a cult of hat wearing women slathering honey on a piece of wood.
  Adding insult to injury, Monk Kidd conjured up a last minute civil rights issue with a forbidden teen love story. All I could do was roll my eyes and hope for a decent ending. Well, at least it ended.
  I thought this book had good intentions in the beginning. Then it felt manipulated, like an editor said "you have to adress these elements to make it a best seller." Not a good story, a 'best seller.'
  I thought the story was contrived and lost it's potency with the cult theme. I felt cheated and rather than recommending it to friends, I warned them off of it.
  
  
  
• "Bee" Sure To Read This Book
  By AKQBX7Z13NZCC on 2002-02-17
  Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, is a lovely story. Lily, a fourteen year old girl growing up in South Carolina in the sixties, escapes the abuse of her father and ends up living with the Boatwright sisters. The story of beekeeping and how it relates to our lives is fascinating. Lily is searching for her mother's past, a mother who was shot and killed when Lily was only four years old. August Boatwright offers Lily a place to be safe. August's sisters, May and June, provide an interesting background to the story along with Lily's fugitive housekeeper, Rosaleen. I thoroughly enjoyed the southern side to this story, a behind the scenes look at what might have happened when the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964. This book is appropriate for all ages of women, from teen-agers on up. It teaches us so many lessons about race, religion, and the strength we all have within us but may not recognize without some guidance.

  A side note - the cover of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is exquisite. I would love to have a poster of this cover on a wall in my home.
  
  

• be forewarned
  By on 2002-04-05
  It's been done too many times to list. But if you like books with a
  1.13 year old girl
  2. first person narrator who's
  3. Southern and has an
  4. abusive father
  5. with a little de rigeur race and religion thrown in
  this is your book.
  
  
• One Man's Take on This Honey of a Book
  By A1CHM200OEN65X on 2003-05-06
  Okay, so I'm male. I read suspense and mysteries. I have testosterone flowing through my frame as surely as estrogen flows through this book's intended audience. Is it wrong, then, for me to love this story?

  After numerous people told me to try it, I succumbed to the sweet temptation. I was drawn in quickly by young Lily's struggles in a single-parent home, and by her guilt pertaining to her mother's death. Then, when Lily and proud, black Rosaleen find themselves as fugitives to the law--and lawless, violent men--I knew I was hooked. Their subsequent steps on a journey of discovery lead them to a beekeeping farm, where a trio of eccentric women will challenge and change their lives forever.

  Although the writing is rich and smooth, it is also honest and hard-hitting. I never doubted the characters' motivations or actions. Scene by scene, Kidd builds a powerful story of secrets and family, love and redemption. Along the way, she flirts with elements of a mystery book. I was smitten.

  I found myself marking page after page to share with my wife: "You've gotta hear this description." "Listen to this...this is life-wisdom." Sometimes, I just leaned back and shook my head. "This is gooood stuff," I'd say quietly, before returning to the story.

  A story written by a woman, about women, marketed to women...

  This man happened to love every page of it, even if I was left wanting more in the concluding scene. But honey has that sort of effect.
  
  

• Caricatures not Characters
  By on 2003-07-21
  I had also heard that this book was great, but I found that the story was weak and the characters one-dimensional. In terms of depth it felt more like a book that was written for pre-teens rather than adults, with a melodramatic and unbelievable story line (although given the tough subject matter it's probably not appropriate for a younger audience either). Can't recommend this one.
  
  

• The Mermaid Chair
• Life of Pi
• The Kite Runner
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• The Time Traveler's Wife