A review by calliecachat
Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read this for book club. It was not at all what I was expecting. I found the ending rushed, lackluster, and hard to believe. I did really enjoy the structure of the story in the way it is told between multiple perspectives and varies in the timeline. 

Lily’s story reminded me so much of Amanda’s story in Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl. I think it did a good job of informing the reader about transgender people. It was, similar to Russo’s work, a story of a girl whose experience transitioning, medically speaking, was ideal so that she was able to “pass” easily in the eyes of others. I did appreciate Elizabeth’s remark that meeting one trans person means “meeting only one trans person” to highlight that not every experience is like Lily’s. That being said, I found Olivia’s conversation with Elizabeth to be superficial and forced for the sake of answer readers’ potential question's.
 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings