Mad Honey A Novel

I picked up this book without knowing anything about it… and was just blown away by the storyline, the character, and the writing. Excellent! My favorite book of the year, so far… by far.

I liked this collaboration because I learned about bees and the differences/meanings of being transgender. Plus it was a tragic love story that I wish had a different ending.

First and foremost, this is a VERY heavy read with lots of thought provoking content. Many trigger warnings as stated. However, this was so beautifully and cohesively written. Lily, Olivia, & Asher’s story intertwine together to really drive home that we are people first with feelings and thoughts.

Mad Honey is a bit of a challenge to write about, mostly because I don’t want to ruin any of this excellent read for others out there. At its foundation, it’s the love story of two high school seniors: Asher — captain of the hockey team, the popular kid in school — and Lily — newly transferred in to their high school in New Hampshire from California. The story alternates chapters between those told from Lily’s point of view, and those told from the point of view of Asher’s mother, Olivia. And, in an interesting twist, Lily’s chapters are told in reverse chronological order.That reverse chronology choice allows us to see a unique perspective of the moments that built Asher’s and Lily’s relationship. When we meet them, they are deeply in love. And working backwards from there, we get to see the building blocks laid down for that relationship. We also get to see when key pieces of information were disclosed and how that changed things for both of them.The novel is not purely about the two lovebirds, although they are clearly at the center. Olivia, as the narrator of half of the chapters, is in many ways more of the focus than Asher, and the reader gets to see how she relates to her son as well as how she copes with the challenges of her abusive relationship with her ex-husband (and Asher’s father), Braden. Her brother plays a prominent role in the story as well, and I think that the authors did a really fine job of capturing sibling love (and tension), as well as the guilt her brother feels for not recognizing the abuse in Olivia’s marriage.Against that setting, there is tragedy that happens relatively early in the novel, and a murder trial that dominates a good portion of the book. Those who read Defending Jacob by William Landay (an excellent read, by the way, if you have never sought it out) will likely pick up on some parallels and common themes. But, where that was a more straightforward legal thriller, this is a wholly unique novel that carries the story to significantly greater depths, with a surprising twist about halfway through that plays a brilliant role in the novel executing its purpose.I had never read anything by Jennifer Finney Boylan, and the only book I had previously read from Jodi Picoult was My Sister’s Keeper, and that was over a decade ago. Despite a lot of press and buzz, thought My Sister’s Keeper was…fine, but mostly unremarkable. Mad Honey is significantly better. As the authors share in the acknowledgments, Picoult actually wrote all of the Olivia chapters, and Finney Boylan wrote all of those from Lily’s point of view. Except, just to keep things interesting and to make sure it felt consistent throughout, they each wrote one of the opposite chapters. I had no idea that was the case while reading, and I think even if I re-read the novel with that knowledge, I’d have a very hard time picking which chapters were written by the “other” author. That’s a long way of saying that despite having two authors, the novel feels seamless and as if it was written by one person.If you read Mad Honey purely for plot, it’s a compelling mystery / legal thriller. But because of the subject matter and the layers built into that solid plot, it’s quite a bit more. That depth elevates it from something good to something more powerful and important than it perhaps would have been otherwise. This will keep you entertained, and you’ll learn something along the way as well. Highly recommended.

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.