Reviews

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

jules32reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

_jared_19_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

book_love001's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

sottokyutto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

fionamccarthy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

jvincke's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

miakilpatrick's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kevindc's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

cwurst's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

candireads's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Rating may change as I sit with the book a bit more.

But overall I absolutely loved reading The Bee Sting. It’s felt like an age since I properly devoured a story like that, and I was engaged from start to finish. The character work was incredible and I loved getting to delve into the lives and inner worlds of the four members of this family. It felt like a true family saga, a book you can really sink your teeth into, and I so thought it was going to be a five star read but the ending has kind of ruined it for me sadly.

I was really hoping for some kind of reconciliation between the Barneses, some emotional moment of connection between them, but as we got closer and closer to the end, I started to worry that things were just going to be left unresolved and that’s exactly how it feels. It seemed like the story cut off prematurely and it’s left me feeling quite unsatisfied, which is a shame - there was no moment between them all, just a bit of a dark ambiguous ending. Which was a shame.

Overall really gorgeously written, but for me, the ending kind of made me feel a bit cheated. That I spent so much time reading this book only for it to fall at the last hurdle. I’m definitely left disappointed, but for the majority of the book I was hooked and loving it. So, yeah, I’m unsure how I feel about it.