Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Bee Sting

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

theunfinishedbookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

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darlenechatt's review

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Uninteresting story. Unlikable characters. Animal cruelty.

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mtferal's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

It's a quintessentially Irish story about a family hurtling towards a collapse that could be avoided if they were simply honest with one another. I loved the way the characters were laid out from each others' perspectives, and how the shift in those perspectives filled in the gaps of each other's understandings and made each of their situations more relatable. At times it felt like Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" if it was written by an author who wasn't such an asshole and clearly loved his characters.

To address some points from other reviews-- yes, it's long. I didn't feel it overstayed its welcome, or dragged on too long in any direction before switching to a different character or plot thread. There is indeed a 100+ page stretch with no punctuation, but there aren't any quotation marks on dialogue to begin with, and proper capitalization is maintained so I found it easy to follow. I thought this contributed to an overall dreamlike feeling that made that section particularly memorable, especially since it lays out much of the core trauma that drives the engine of the story.

I really can't recommend this one enough. It went down easier than a 600+ page book about Irish family trauma should. The ending is ambiguous but thought-provoking, and I bet a re-read would be rewarded with tons of details that foreshadow the author's true intent.

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brandocalrissian83's review

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Simply put The Bee Sting is the epitome of a slow moving train crash. It was difficult to turn away from the Barne’s family. Murray delicately navigates us through one family’s slow implosion building over the course of decades. Each point of view building on a history that seemed doomed from its inception. With a mixture of questionable character choices/ consequences and the inevitable struggle of surviving modern times we find ourselves both baffled by the family’s decisions and relating to their plight. Murray manages to blend themes of family, identity , class and the effects of trauma into this tale. Murray gives each member of the family a slightly different writing style which is generally clever but occasionally frustrating eg. Imelda’s Kerouacian stream of consciousness. The opening is a slow burn and the novel is not short but the last third of the book keeps the pages turning at breakneck speed. Aptly titled The Bee Sting leaves its mark.

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gvstyris's review against another edition

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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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