The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Goodreads rating: 2*

If I had the ability to stop reading a book without finishing it (psychologically impossible for me), then I don’t think I would have ever made it to the end of this one. I had high hopes after reading the blurb and some other people’s reviews, but I really didn’t enjoy this read.

Now don’t get me wrong, I knew roughly what I was in for in terms of the cliché coming-of-age storyline for a 14yr old girl living in the American South – there was the standard teenage angst, abusive/neglectful father-figure, first love anxiety etc., but I couldn’t wait to experience how the author brought the race theme into the novel. Unfortunately, the racism message was lost for me within an overzealous helping of religious notions and beliefs.

The new religion idea in itself was fresh and inviting, especially as a female reader, but it just seemed to take over and it became too much of the story’s focus. I wanted it to be a heartfelt narrative with more detail of the struggles faced by the black characters, how they stood up for themselves in a time of race riots, segregation and constant mistreatment, but instead it ended up being more about how a young white girl’s eyes were opened to the cruelties of the world when it came to race and that almost invalidated the inclusivity in my opinion.

I did enjoy the dialogues and to be fair, I thought Lily’s character was well-written along with a number of the Daughters of Mary however, the way in which Lily finally found out the truth surrounding her mother’s death was a little far-fetched and the ending was a very ‘meh’.