8.07k reviews for:

The Bee Sting

Paul Murray

4.12 AVERAGE

callahan08wood's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional mysterious reflective

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

itsmaren's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ambswds's review against another edition

2.5

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jenzabar's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lbossino's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Woowww that ending, I don't think I've ever been edged so hard... what you doing to me Paul?

. At first I was furious but any book that leaves me needing to take a break before starting my next read is a powerful book. Loved all the readers much more astute than I am who picked up on the foreshadowing. I thought the pacing was masterfully done, particularly the crescendo of the last quarter. Characters were lovable enough and realistic / flawed enough to make them engaging. I liked the length as well, a good meaty book. 

Didn't give 5 stars because firstly I really struggled with the total lack of punctuation during Imelda's perspective, couldn't get a good flow in her chapters, I can totally see how it tells you something about her character but it just brought me out of it. Secondly, I sort of agree with another review I read commenting on how some of the story lines moved on a bit too quickly

(e.g. I expected Cass partying through her exams to be more consequential but somehow she still gets good grades and goes to Trinity, same for PJ getting groomed and followed by a spooky online predator but then he gets rescued and it's all ok).

Not a dealbreaker for me but I wonder if there's something I didn't get. 

holliss's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

margomakesit's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 5%

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Just a really long book and don’t have time to read it. Maybe will pick it up again in the future.

pellacan's review against another edition

4.0

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I really did not like this book until the last quarter or so, but the ending was so haunting I think it made up for it. 3.5 stars I think, mostly docked for some of the strange men-writing-women-isms.

3/16/24: In retrospect I cannot stop thinking about this book.

fmoretti's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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A chonk of a domestic saga. I can’t say I cared for the actual story in the end, but the writing was very good. Though I found myself wishing for the story to just conclude towards the end. I didn’t care for the actual ending either. Overall the standard of writing influenced my rating. 

iainbertram's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 4%

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 It interested in rich people problems