jellichor's reviews
280 reviews

Gosh. Where to start? This is my first of both authors and certainly won't be my last of either. I'm glad that my buddyread pal recommended Jodi Picoult, and even more so that we were able to both experience her co-writer Jennifer Finney Boylan's writing. I really enjoyed both of their writing which merges almost seamlessly; and the sheer amount of hours dedicated to research and planning is very clear to see.

This isn't just your bog standard heart breaking tale of boy meets girl; although at the very heart of the book, it is exactly that. Asher and Lily fall in love. Then Lily dies. And here begins the story of Olivia and her son Asher, and Ava and her daughter Lily - all four of them survivors, 
recently escaped from their old lives, simply looking for a brighter future. 

The chapters go from Olivia to Lily - Olivia's moving forward from the day of Lily's death as Asher is taken to trial, and Lily's moving backwards from the day of her death. I quote the epigraph to the book - 'Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.' - Soren Kierkegaard

Its tricky as I want my reviews to be spoiler free but what I will say is that big subjects in this book include discrimination and prejudice - there are other TW which you may want to look up, although be warned some of them will give away some big twists.

I found this story to be both enlightening and humbling. It serves a reminder that we can always learn more, thrive to educate ourselves every day. It is raw and moving and thought provoking - I found the discussion around the 'correct timing' of disclosing ones' own secret private history with loved ones particularly so. When is it the right time to tell someone your deepest secret? surely only you can be the one to decide that? even so, others may feel they have a right to deem this withholding tantamount to lying?

This book explores the complexities of motherhood, and the lengths you might go to protect the ones you love the most - surely one of those people should be yourself? It also centres around how much we REALLY know our loved ones - presumably only as much as they choose to show us? or to share with us? Is it true we can we never truly know another? and what could we lose if we choose to show our true selves?

I wasn't sure if I was enjoying the book when I first started it, there was nothing I disliked but I could not decide if I liked it either. I've decided I did like it. I liked the bees that Olivia had and all the detail that came with explaining her beekeeping. I like how the title 'Mad Honey' made sense once I learned what it actually was. I liked that Lily knew so much and all the little hints of general knowledge she would share throughout the book - I learnt a quite a bit! I particularly enjoyed the way the characters were written, they felt authentic and three dimensional. As I was coming to the end of the book I felt a deep sadness for the loss of Lily - and of the loss of Lily's life, as she would talk about her plans for the future... These were real people to me. Ultimately, I can't fault this book - it had me ruminating, has left me with a deeper understanding of multiple things, and inevitably also had me sending my poor buddyread partner podcast length voice notes. I recommend this to anyone!

I'll leave you with a line from Jodi Picoult's Author notes -

' We are all flawed, complicated, wounded dreamers; we have more in common with one another than we don't. '