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

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Book Review: Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan 

Mad Honey is a contemporary novel about a mother who is faced with her son’s arrest for his girlfriend’s murder. 

Olivia McAfee is a beekeeper who is raising her teenage son Asher alone after fleeing an abusive marriage. When Asher falls for the new girl in town Olivia flashes back to her own traumatic marriage with Asher’s father the charming (but monstrous) Braden. But two months into their relationship Asher finds Lily dead at the bottom of her staircase and he immediately becomes the lone suspect. With alternating POV’s between Lily and Olivia we learn what came before and after Lily’s death and what shaped both of these strong women. 

Mad Honey is a powerful novel about identity, family and love. The doomed character of Lily is so hard to let go of once the reader meets her and hears her story. And Olivia’s trauma after being married to Braden feels very authentic and realistic. It’s hard not to feel for her as she tries to hold on to her faith in Asher as the evidence mounts up. I found myself reaching for this book over and over trying to find out what will happen next. 

I highly recommend this intelligent and emotional novel. Through the characters the reader learns so much about bee colonies, gender identity and the cycle of abuse. I highly recommend it to fiction readers everywhere. 

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️