Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

6 reviews

jessiedoodah's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Alcoholism, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault

gvstyris's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

So many of the bad things that happen in the world come from people pretending to be something they’re not. 

The Bee Sting depicts a family on the brink of collapse, its four members incapable of emotional vulnerability and ravaged by years of shame and trauma. It is devastating how little the POV characters know about one-another, especially the married couple, Dickie and Imelda.

The consideration of these four perspectives is where much of The Bee Sting's genius lies. Cass and PJ's two-dimensional perception of their parents' beliefs and ambitions, for example, is challenged as soon as we reach Imelda's first chapter. I was surprised by how convincingly Murray writes each character, portraying both women and younger voices with sensitivity and understanding. Each perspective adds something to the overall narrative, and I particularly enjoyed delving into Dickie's psyche.

Murray's prose also plays an important role in this novel's success. Imelda's chapters are written without punctuation, offering the reader a stream-of-consciousness that seems to mirror her anxiety and disorientation with her life's trajectory. That being said, I did listen to the audiobook and would recommend it for a more seamless reading experience -- a couple of Murray's stylistic choices would likely have bugged me without it. I also loved how each section decreases in length as the novel progresses, slowly building the tension as it becomes clearer and clearer that the Barnes' family is irreparably damaged. Similarly, the symbolism here is beautiful: the squirrels, Imelda's fairytales, the bee sting itself. 

Given that this book is a 650 page marathon, it delves into too many other themes to summarise here. The discussion around climate anxiety and human destruction also stuck with me, as well as the religious guilt that underpins much of Dickie's (and Imelda's, I suppose) struggle. I will be thinking about the ending for a long time, but am definitely a believer that

the novel's opening lines foreshadow its conclusion. There is something suitably tragic about the catharsis of Dickie committing suicide after unintentionally shooting the two children.

On a pettier note, though, I was slightly tempted to take half a star off because

the names of the two gay men are Dickie and Willie :sob:

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Dementia, and Alcohol

Minor: Car accident, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

risemini's review

challenging dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dementia, Alcoholism, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Death, Infidelity, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Physical abuse

signeskov's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Bullying, Grief, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Car accident, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal death

alexhaydon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

this book raises such a huge list of questions, personally, culturally and societally. A huge number of perspectives which initially seem daunting but are fairly easy to navigate. They allow a deep exploration into internal conflicts and monologues that highlight the severe degree of miscommunication at play in this story. A tragic story which has an ambiguous ending but possibly one of redemption. Most topics raised in this novel felt like they had a natural presence within the storyline, while others less so, but all important nevertheless and didn't detract from the main plot threads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Gun violence, and Rape

Moderate: Grief, Death, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Car accident

reads_eats_explores's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.5

The Bee Sting opens with a tale of woe, “a man had killed his family” in another town, and “rumours swirled about affairs, addiction, hidden files on his computer.” Are these prophecies of what awaits the Barnes family, our multilayered protagonists?

The Barnes, oh, how can one small family have so many adversities to face? They live in an unnamed small Irish town and are struggling on so many levels; godawful for them but great for the storytelling.

In the wake of a recession, the Volkswagen dealership run by Dickie Barnes has seen sales plummet while also facing a surge in complaints about repair work. Does Dickie know more than he's letting on? In an effort to stick his head in the sand as far as the dubious business at the garage goes, he retreats into himself and the woodlands behind their house, where he attempts to create a ‘safe zone’ where they'll be safe when not if the shit hits the fan.

A disgruntled client’s son threatens to beat Dickie’s boy, PJ, with a hammer. PJ sinks deeper into loneliness and online gaming forums, where he gets befriended by a profile that reeks of malevolence.

PJ's sister, Cass, flounders with her capricious best friend, peer pressure, leaving cert stress and the demon drink.

Their mother, Imelda, bears the brunt of the neighbours’ schadenfreude. She stops her beloved online shopping (her one true joy) and worries that she has somehow caused this rake load of trouble through a family curse.

Told through these multiple points of view in chapters narrated by each character, we get the modern day tale with plenty of historical flashbacks thrown in.

These flashbacks mostly reveal the poverty and old passions that shade Dickie and Imelda’s rather uneasy marriage.

All the characters are well developed and paint their own grim picture, but for me, Imelda’s sections are the stand out highlights. They are structured in the stream-of-consciousness style that really draws you in, from her early years of violence and poverty down “piggery lane” to her current predicament.

In this tragicomic behemoth read, Murray shows a great talent for blending humour and pathos. Yes, we trudge from bad to worse, with Murray tirelessly concocting fresh anguish for the Barneses, but there's a good dose of quintessentially Irish humour along the way. 4.5⭐

Many thanks to Penguin Books Ireland for an advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Gore, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Stalking, Biphobia, Homophobia, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Sexism, Classism, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape