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tiffanywang29's review
3.0
I'm not sure I liked the way this book was written...each "chapter" was too short, which gave the book a disjointed feel to it. I understand that O'Donnell was trying to characterize Marnie as rough and unloved, but again, the diction was so choppy that it kind of ruined the book as a whole. The plot was subpar and I didn't feel a story being woven together as the plot went on. Regardless, it was nice to see a happy ending.
cathyatratedreads's review
2.0
Couldn't get more than 50 pages in; it was just SO vulgar. The primary narrator uses f-words left and right, and she's only 15 years old. There is also a neighbor who is homosexual and is listed as a sex offender because he paid a teenager for "favors" - in a public park, no less. Then there are kind of gross details about the kids' parents' decaying bodies. Just couldn't read any more.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/death-of-bees-book-review/
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/death-of-bees-book-review/
littletaiko's review
4.0
"Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved." I was hooked from these opening sentences. Two sisters who are part of a very dysfunctional family cope the best they can after burying their parents. They hide the fact that their parents are dead by telling people they have left on a trip. Since the parents were in the habit of abandoning them fairly regularly, their story rings true. They find assistance in their neighbor Lennie who has his own problems. The story is told from all three perspectives and the author does a nice job giving them their own distinct voices. It's a quick, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking story.
In full disclosure I did receive this as a free copy from Goodreads.
In full disclosure I did receive this as a free copy from Goodreads.
jo_bookworm's review against another edition
5.0
The opening of The Death of Bees in fact the synopsis of the book is such that it is rather in your face –
“Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved."
Was I really going to like a book like this, it is not my normal choice but I persevered with Marnie, 15 years old and the whole world on her shoulders. Academically advanced without trying and advanced physically but probably not emotionally as she is desperately unloved. The only person she cares and protects is her younger sister, Nelly.
Nelly is unique. Her language is something of the nineteen thirties, which rather stands out on a Glaswegian council estate in the twenty first century. Nelly wants love and protection as well, but that only comes from her sister Marnie.
Between the two of them, they try and cling together with the after effects of the death and subsequent burial of their parents. Whilst there is gruesome scenes; burying the bodies, the bleach stench of house to hide the smell. There is also subtle comic humour as panic regarding next door neighbour’s dog digging up bits of the bodies and the mass planting of lavender to hide the smell.
But the neighbour’s dog does not give up; neither does the kind neighbour Lennie, who takes it as read that Marnie and Nelly’s parents have gone to Turkey as they tell him. But something does not ring true and Lennie starts to take more of an interest in these two lost girls. He feeds them, keeps them warm and starts to protect them from all those who are asking questions. Revelations about their parents start to haunt Marnie and Nelly, their familial past makes an appearance and it is down to Lennie to provide shelter both physical and emotional. But then as Lennie (and his dog) uncover more, it seems that Marnie and Nelly may no longer be together.
Using these three main characters the author O’Donnell creates a viewpoint in each chapter, as we alternate between the three. Sometimes the chapters are short and precise, others meander as we are taken back through their pasts so a rounder picture is built up as to how the three characters happen to be in the situation they are in now. Funny and dark, is sometimes perhaps an oxymoron but it seems to work in this novel and work well whilst dealing with some rather gritty issues; underage sex, drugs, many forms of abuse. But fundamentally it is about survival and love.
An odd choice of title, which is only really mentioned once in the novel and then is seemingly forgotten it confused me somewhat. That said, this was a great novel and one I would recommend and I look forward to what she may produce next.
“Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved."
Was I really going to like a book like this, it is not my normal choice but I persevered with Marnie, 15 years old and the whole world on her shoulders. Academically advanced without trying and advanced physically but probably not emotionally as she is desperately unloved. The only person she cares and protects is her younger sister, Nelly.
Nelly is unique. Her language is something of the nineteen thirties, which rather stands out on a Glaswegian council estate in the twenty first century. Nelly wants love and protection as well, but that only comes from her sister Marnie.
Between the two of them, they try and cling together with the after effects of the death and subsequent burial of their parents. Whilst there is gruesome scenes; burying the bodies, the bleach stench of house to hide the smell. There is also subtle comic humour as panic regarding next door neighbour’s dog digging up bits of the bodies and the mass planting of lavender to hide the smell.
But the neighbour’s dog does not give up; neither does the kind neighbour Lennie, who takes it as read that Marnie and Nelly’s parents have gone to Turkey as they tell him. But something does not ring true and Lennie starts to take more of an interest in these two lost girls. He feeds them, keeps them warm and starts to protect them from all those who are asking questions. Revelations about their parents start to haunt Marnie and Nelly, their familial past makes an appearance and it is down to Lennie to provide shelter both physical and emotional. But then as Lennie (and his dog) uncover more, it seems that Marnie and Nelly may no longer be together.
Using these three main characters the author O’Donnell creates a viewpoint in each chapter, as we alternate between the three. Sometimes the chapters are short and precise, others meander as we are taken back through their pasts so a rounder picture is built up as to how the three characters happen to be in the situation they are in now. Funny and dark, is sometimes perhaps an oxymoron but it seems to work in this novel and work well whilst dealing with some rather gritty issues; underage sex, drugs, many forms of abuse. But fundamentally it is about survival and love.
An odd choice of title, which is only really mentioned once in the novel and then is seemingly forgotten it confused me somewhat. That said, this was a great novel and one I would recommend and I look forward to what she may produce next.
kdurham2's review
2.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Quite an interesting book and definitely different from most of what I read, this book centers around two sisters who are burying their parents and at the young ages of 15 and 12 are trying to keep up the appearances to avoid being separated. Their inquisitive neighbor enters the picture and provides another voice to the book with his own issues that he is trying to live with.
Quite an interesting book and definitely different from most of what I read, this book centers around two sisters who are burying their parents and at the young ages of 15 and 12 are trying to keep up the appearances to avoid being separated. Their inquisitive neighbor enters the picture and provides another voice to the book with his own issues that he is trying to live with.
meghan111's review
3.0
I fell under the spell of this immediately. How could you not, when the first lines are, "Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard." It was a quick, engrossing read about growing up poor in Glasgow. Told from the point of view of two sisters, both smart, saddled with drug addicts for parents. The younger sister Nelly has an old fashioned vocabulary and an oddly fey manner, while the older sister Marnie has turned to friends, street life, drugs, and sex as ways to cope. After the death of their parents, they look for a way to stay together unsupervised until Marnie turns 16 and can formally be made the guardian of her little sister.
booksaremyfavorite's review
4.0
i really liked this book.
the premise seemed almost too hokey, and I had trouble believing a kid would be so blase about what has happened to her family (it happens in the first page, no spoiler) but it became more believable as the details were filled out. the characters were well developed throughout, and interesting, and not at all predictable. i liked the bits of dialect, they added rather than distracted when present.
the changing perspectives made the book move more quickly rather than slow it down.
it was impressive how deftly the writer moved from light subjects like first dates and mix tapes to much heavier themes of love, forgiveness, and grief.
highly recommend.
i give 4 stars to books i love and if I'm still thinking about them months to years later i change to 5.
the premise seemed almost too hokey, and I had trouble believing a kid would be so blase about what has happened to her family (it happens in the first page, no spoiler) but it became more believable as the details were filled out. the characters were well developed throughout, and interesting, and not at all predictable. i liked the bits of dialect, they added rather than distracted when present.
the changing perspectives made the book move more quickly rather than slow it down.
it was impressive how deftly the writer moved from light subjects like first dates and mix tapes to much heavier themes of love, forgiveness, and grief.
highly recommend.
i give 4 stars to books i love and if I'm still thinking about them months to years later i change to 5.
bmg20's review
5.0
A copy of The Death of Bees was provided to me by Harper for review purposes.
"Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am 15. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved."
Launching right into the heart of the story, Marnie and Nelly bury their parents in the backyard after their father suffocates and their mothers hangs herself. With both parents gone the girls are left completely alone. Living in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland, Marnie makes a hasty decision to bury them both in the garden in order to avoid being placed into foster care. When Marnie turns 16 she can legally care for her sister so they just need to stay under the radar for one year. But between their curious but concerned neighbor and his inquisitive dog with a penchant for digging in their garden, a drug dealer their father owes money to, and a grandfather that wants to find his daughter their carefully constructed web of lies slowly begins to deteriorate.
Having lived with their parents misconduct their entire lives, finding their dead bodies didn't have the emotional impact that would be typical for most people. Marnie had already been taking care of her and her sister for years so not having their parents there really wasn't new. Except they were still there. Kind of. They were just in the garden now, buried under the lavender bushes.
It wasn't until later that I connected the dots and the references to the sexual abuse from their father. The author manages to indirectly reference the abuse both girls received from their father without going into unnecessary detail but I almost missed it entirely. The only indication given of this abuse was the lasting impacts both girls exhibit (i.e. Marnie's drinking and drug problems and lack of disregard for sleeping with married men and Nelly's ongoing night terrors.) Their experiences nevertheless created an unbreakable bond between the girls.
Throughout the story, the reference to people being 'monsters' for actions in their life that have inevitably gone on to define them. The elderly gay neighbor Lennie who takes it upon himself to care for the girls when they so desperately needed someone. But due to a past transgression that labeled him a sex offender he becomes identified as a monster. Marnie and Nelly's parents are more deserving of the label 'monster' because of the serious neglect of their children. The girls were forced to grow up at an extremely young age due to their parents terminal absence. Neither girl had anything close to a childhood and it was always a guessing game whether they would come home with groceries or drugs and booze. The children's grandfather that appears and suddenly wants to be a part of their life to make amends for past wrongs is also deserving of the title. But that's where the grey area develops: Do the girls actions make them monsters as well? Or is their behavior excusable because of everything they had already been through and what they were trying to avoid? The author doesn't provide any clear cut answer in determining who is right and who is wrong but it's safe to say that all characters are at fault in some way.
The style of writing and changes in point of view were brilliant. Each character had their own distinctive voice and their own important story. All points of view were told in first person but Lennie's was written almost as a letter or diary entries to his deceased lover, Joseph. Nelly is quite the eccentric 12 year-old that is a violin prodigy, has a fondness for old classic movies, and speaks as if, as Lennie put it, "like she swallowed a dictionary". Marnie, an extremely direct and to the point individual that carries a massive burden which she manages to somewhat hide. It's obvious that both girls lack necessary help, they just simply don't know where to look for it.
"What on earth is happening to the bees? They say it is an ecological disaster, an environment holocaust. Every day I wonder what the blazes can be causing this abuse of our ecosystem." -Nelly
The meaning behind the title eluded me for quite some time and I actually spent several hours pondering its significance. So this is what I came up with, but I could be completely off the mark, I have no idea but it really does seem to have a simple and straight forward meaning. As Nelly stated above, the death of bees is an ecological disaster and an environmental holocaust as bees play a major role and their deaths have a lasting effect. Even though their parents didn't play a major role in the girls lives, their deaths still managed to make a lasting impact on them.
'I fear death, I have always feared death. It comes like a gale and never with permission. I would meet it again today.'
'The Death of Bees' is gloomy, somber, and brutally realistic but darkly comedic as well. Enthralling and thought-provoking, you'll find yourselves racing to finish to find out these unforgettable girls' fate.
"Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am 15. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved."
Launching right into the heart of the story, Marnie and Nelly bury their parents in the backyard after their father suffocates and their mothers hangs herself. With both parents gone the girls are left completely alone. Living in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland, Marnie makes a hasty decision to bury them both in the garden in order to avoid being placed into foster care. When Marnie turns 16 she can legally care for her sister so they just need to stay under the radar for one year. But between their curious but concerned neighbor and his inquisitive dog with a penchant for digging in their garden, a drug dealer their father owes money to, and a grandfather that wants to find his daughter their carefully constructed web of lies slowly begins to deteriorate.
Having lived with their parents misconduct their entire lives, finding their dead bodies didn't have the emotional impact that would be typical for most people. Marnie had already been taking care of her and her sister for years so not having their parents there really wasn't new. Except they were still there. Kind of. They were just in the garden now, buried under the lavender bushes.
It wasn't until later that I connected the dots and the references to the sexual abuse from their father. The author manages to indirectly reference the abuse both girls received from their father without going into unnecessary detail but I almost missed it entirely. The only indication given of this abuse was the lasting impacts both girls exhibit (i.e. Marnie's drinking and drug problems and lack of disregard for sleeping with married men and Nelly's ongoing night terrors.) Their experiences nevertheless created an unbreakable bond between the girls.
Throughout the story, the reference to people being 'monsters' for actions in their life that have inevitably gone on to define them. The elderly gay neighbor Lennie who takes it upon himself to care for the girls when they so desperately needed someone. But due to a past transgression that labeled him a sex offender he becomes identified as a monster. Marnie and Nelly's parents are more deserving of the label 'monster' because of the serious neglect of their children. The girls were forced to grow up at an extremely young age due to their parents terminal absence. Neither girl had anything close to a childhood and it was always a guessing game whether they would come home with groceries or drugs and booze. The children's grandfather that appears and suddenly wants to be a part of their life to make amends for past wrongs is also deserving of the title. But that's where the grey area develops: Do the girls actions make them monsters as well? Or is their behavior excusable because of everything they had already been through and what they were trying to avoid? The author doesn't provide any clear cut answer in determining who is right and who is wrong but it's safe to say that all characters are at fault in some way.
The style of writing and changes in point of view were brilliant. Each character had their own distinctive voice and their own important story. All points of view were told in first person but Lennie's was written almost as a letter or diary entries to his deceased lover, Joseph. Nelly is quite the eccentric 12 year-old that is a violin prodigy, has a fondness for old classic movies, and speaks as if, as Lennie put it, "like she swallowed a dictionary". Marnie, an extremely direct and to the point individual that carries a massive burden which she manages to somewhat hide. It's obvious that both girls lack necessary help, they just simply don't know where to look for it.
"What on earth is happening to the bees? They say it is an ecological disaster, an environment holocaust. Every day I wonder what the blazes can be causing this abuse of our ecosystem." -Nelly
The meaning behind the title eluded me for quite some time and I actually spent several hours pondering its significance. So this is what I came up with, but I could be completely off the mark, I have no idea but it really does seem to have a simple and straight forward meaning. As Nelly stated above, the death of bees is an ecological disaster and an environmental holocaust as bees play a major role and their deaths have a lasting effect. Even though their parents didn't play a major role in the girls lives, their deaths still managed to make a lasting impact on them.
'I fear death, I have always feared death. It comes like a gale and never with permission. I would meet it again today.'
'The Death of Bees' is gloomy, somber, and brutally realistic but darkly comedic as well. Enthralling and thought-provoking, you'll find yourselves racing to finish to find out these unforgettable girls' fate.
all_things_dani's review
1.0
mmmmm I guess Im the odd one out. I just could not get into this book. I have no issues with cursing and other graphic scenes so that wasn't it. I never actually finished reading it. I got to a point where I just didn't care for the characters anymore.
emmamgregory's review
5.0
I think my career as a professional reader may be over as I'm not sure I'll be able to find another novel that will appeal to all my literary sensibilities. This British traicomedy had me laugh with its dry witty characters and cry with its absolutely desperately sad characters. Throw in a couple of bodies under the lavender in the back garden, the neighbour's dog that loves digging, a witless drugs dealer and the world's biggest losers as parents and I finished this book in a week. If nothing else as a parent I can stay in bed for a week while serving up jelly beans and allowing my kids to watch non stop telly and still feel like I should win an award! Fantastic