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A review by jessica_patient
Here Is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan
5.0
Here is the Beehive is not a typical novel about adultery told in a typical way. This is a book that needs to come with a warning - a warning that you're going to read this in one sitting as the story won't let you go.
Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years, during stolen moments in pubs, hotels, work. Each other's texts are read, then deleted making their relationship invisible to the world around them and only visible to them. Told in verse, the book starts with the end of their relationship where Connor dies unexpectedly, leave Ana unable to share her grief and stand on the sidelines.
Struggling to cope with the grief as it consumes her, unable to speak to her husband about her sudden sadness and distancing herself from her family. She is trapped with this secret and with memories she can't share with anyone. There are no messages or letters or photos from their time together that she can cherish them. It is as if the affair only ever existed in her mind.
Here is the Beehive is gripping and lyrical, the words gliding along as snatches of their past reveal an affair that goes from being magical and perfect to slowly souring with Ana pushing for them to leave their spouses and Connor trying to avoid committing to their future. Secrets unravel about Ana and Connor's life during the flashbacks, and because Crossan wraps you up in the universe of this affair, it's a jolt when their spouses and children are mentioned. There are lives outside this bubble of two.
Usually a book about adultery is a straightforward story to tell but Crossan creates a complex and complicated situation not only in the way that the novel is laid out in verse but with these characters. Peeling away the layers of how a marriage is from the outside to look inside the private world of a long term marriage to the silences, the secrets to keep the peace, the comfort and the companionship. I loved the way the verses whipped you up into the story and pulls you into this complex and consuming relationship. Crossan looks at how betrayal, loss and obsession not only consumes Ana but starts impacting on her family, her work, her life.
I have read some of Sarah Crossan's young adult novels but I am going to try and read more of them and I can't wait for her next adult novel. This is a great read, and I highly recommend it!
Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an ebook of this book.
Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years, during stolen moments in pubs, hotels, work. Each other's texts are read, then deleted making their relationship invisible to the world around them and only visible to them. Told in verse, the book starts with the end of their relationship where Connor dies unexpectedly, leave Ana unable to share her grief and stand on the sidelines.
Struggling to cope with the grief as it consumes her, unable to speak to her husband about her sudden sadness and distancing herself from her family. She is trapped with this secret and with memories she can't share with anyone. There are no messages or letters or photos from their time together that she can cherish them. It is as if the affair only ever existed in her mind.
Here is the Beehive is gripping and lyrical, the words gliding along as snatches of their past reveal an affair that goes from being magical and perfect to slowly souring with Ana pushing for them to leave their spouses and Connor trying to avoid committing to their future. Secrets unravel about Ana and Connor's life during the flashbacks, and because Crossan wraps you up in the universe of this affair, it's a jolt when their spouses and children are mentioned. There are lives outside this bubble of two.
Usually a book about adultery is a straightforward story to tell but Crossan creates a complex and complicated situation not only in the way that the novel is laid out in verse but with these characters. Peeling away the layers of how a marriage is from the outside to look inside the private world of a long term marriage to the silences, the secrets to keep the peace, the comfort and the companionship. I loved the way the verses whipped you up into the story and pulls you into this complex and consuming relationship. Crossan looks at how betrayal, loss and obsession not only consumes Ana but starts impacting on her family, her work, her life.
I have read some of Sarah Crossan's young adult novels but I am going to try and read more of them and I can't wait for her next adult novel. This is a great read, and I highly recommend it!
Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an ebook of this book.