ceallaighsbooks 's review for:

Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris

3.0

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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“‘Because you know only Nine Worlds,’ he said. ‘But there are so many worlds out there; a world for every story. Stories wield enormous power; greater even than yours, my Queen. A story can change the course of Time; a story can even raise the dead. A story can take you anywhere; into any world you choose.”

TITLE—Honeycomb

AUTHOR—Joanne M. Harris

PUBLISHED—2021

GENRE—fairy tales

SETTING—the world of the Silken Folk

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—faeries—the Silken Folk, the Natural world/s, princesses, craftspeople & artisans, medieval village life & social structure, fables, Death, curses, prejudice & superstition

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORIES—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—my favorite thing about this book was the worldbuilding, this very insect-y fairy world that is just as beautiful as we have maybe always imagined the fairy realm to be, but with a much darker, and more ancient-feeling, element to it as well...

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️—rather shallow and uncritical at times…

“There are many doors between the worlds of the Faërie and the Folk. Some look like doors; or windows; or books. Some are in Dream; others, in Death. And some simply wait for one person—the right person—to find them and to pass through.”

I absolutely loved the imagery of the faeries and their world and the writing was very beautiful. I also loved the illustrations which were very soft and whimsical. The stories themselves were interesting in regards to the overall structure of the book as some of them were completely separate standalone stories unrelated to the main story arc that connected a lot of the other stories together—the story of the Lacewing King and his family, allies and enemies—and then at the end there was even a pretty clever explanation for this structure of the book which I thought was quite good.

But ultimately while I thought that the premise of the book was excellent, the execution was a little disappointing. Unfortunately I felt that too many of the stories were a little on the substanceless side and the deeper messages were flimsy (and dated, maybe?) at best and at worst almost problematic in their lack of real, critical deeper meaning…. after all, isn’t that the point of fairy tales? Quite a few of the stories had undercurrents of ethnocentric, transphobic (the only gender expansive character was a one-dimensional villain 😬), capitalist, and blind kinloyalty elements… 😬 I think that’s probably why it took me two years to finish it. 😅 I know for sure there were a few stories I did really like and even a couple that definitely had a solid philosophical underpinning but it’s been so long since I read them now that I don’t remember which ones exactly that they were. 🙈 The ones about the farm animals I think were my favorite (they were hilarious 😂) and there were a few about imagination and the ability to see the Folk and why that is that I liked. I can still see myself revisiting this collection even if just purely for the worldbuilding. It was really outstanding. I think I’ll shelve this on my bedtime reads bookshelf. 🌚💕

“…for Life is short, and Death is long, and Love lasts longer than Beauty.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Further Reading—

• Alice in Wonderland
• Brian Froud
• Tales from the Hinterland, by Melissa Albert
• Grimm Tales for Young and Old, by Philip Pullman
• The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter
• Hiddensee, by Gregory Maguire