A review by inamerata
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

emotional

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Honey Girl has a lot of potential, but ultimately fell flat. 

Despite the amazing premise, this isn’t a romance so much as a burnout wish fulfillment story with a romantic side plot. It helps to adjust your expectations, as the romance is incidental to Grace’s personal struggles.

Unfortunately, Grace is a frustrating protagonist. “I don’t know myself outside this strict life plan” is a great starting point, but we don’t get to know her throughout the novel. For example, Grace’s love of astronomy and her research are mentioned constantly and supposed to represent the first choice she made for herself, but we never learn what she does, her research interests, nothing. If astronomy is just meant to be a cool background and fodder for romantic imagery, we don't need the narrative constantly drawing attention to the lack of substance.

Grace has very real struggles as a Black lesbian academic, although these are mostly kept to passing mentions despite being the main cause of her burnout. We absolutely do not need explicit details, but it weakens the story to say "this drives the plot," refuse to elaborate, and instead show a constant stream of her unacknowledged privileges. Apart from strained familial relationships, the bulk of what's on the page are her many opportunities and safety nets.

Her family paid for the Vegas trip for her and her friends. They paid for two of her three degrees. (Even her father’s extreme pressure to become a medical doctor comes with the reveal he had significant connections to help her career, and he would have financially supported that education, as well.) She has a caring mentor, and networks that provide professional support and job opportunities. She has a job outside her field she can leave and return to at will.  She has a large circle of family and friends who offer unconditional love, understanding, and significant material support even when she abruptly leaves and/or cuts them off for months on end. She has the time, money, and opportunities to access mental health care once she decides to seek it, with the biggest struggle being trying enough therapists until she finds the right fit.  On a whim, she can step away from her problems, bouncing from Washington to New York to Florida, often in very expensive cities, without worrying about food, housing, or other costs. We do get very brief moments of recognition that other characters don't have these advantages, namely when Rajesh mildly calls Grace out on her behavior, but even that is framed as too harsh.

 

Beyond Grace, the cast is large and largely underdeveloped. Everyone but her father are easily forgotten when they aren’t actively talking with Grace. Even the love interest, Yuki, is absent from huge swathes of the novel and never evolves beyond a whimsical plot device. Additionally, some of the memorable choices are simply off-putting (e.g., Ximena and Agnes’ developing a romantic relationship overlapping with a professional care provider/patient one.) 

The writing isn’t bad, but it relies too heavily on twee aesthetics, reader projection, and repetition in place of depth. I see a lot of people using “saccharine” and that’s a great description of the style. We do get occasional realistic and emotionally resonant moments, especially when Grace is processing some of her angst about her parents and career path. I wish that same clarity had been applied elsewhere and more often, but it was nevertheless nice when it appeared. 

Overall, I had high hopes, and I was extremely disappointed. There were enough good ideas that I may check out more of Rogers’ work in the future, though, and I’m curious to see where she goes from here.