A review by brokensporty
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

4.0

Book Club Read

Overall, this book covered coming of age, spiritual awakening, mental illness, and the gamut of family dynamics. Some of the scenarios are far-fetched, but the characters were interesting enough to keep me reading.

The son and daughter were doing what kids do, trying to find their place in the world.
The father was trying to force his quest for transcendence onto the kids and focused all of his spare time and effort toward his son because his daughter didn't have any special abilities that he could see. He dropped his son like a hot potato at the first sign of something special in his daughter and focused ALL of his time and energy on her.
The mother was raised detached and came out of it detached and mentally ill. She did an excellent job of covering it up while descending deeper and deeper into madness until she wasn't in control enough to cover her tracks.

The story ended with a powerful moment for the daughter, but left a lot of unanswered questions for the family. Like real life, families have their differences, kids grow up and find their own way, and life goes on.

Side Note: I know little to nothing of Judaism and it was very informative about some of those services and customs.