Description
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(as of Jul 24, 2024 23:33:06 UTC – Details)
By: Jodi Picoult (Author)
Mad Honey: A Novel
Reviews
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Price: $0.00
(as of Jul 24, 2024 23:33:06 UTC – Details)
By: Jodi Picoult (Author)
Read001 –
mad honey
Loved the book. Very well written. It provided insight into human diversity. Helped me understand trans gender and other LGBTQ terminology and what a child goes thru in understanding themselves, accepting it and trying to move on.
BooksAreWings –
Compelling novel with some flaws, but Picoult and Boylan can do no wrong
So, first of all, this book reminded me why I love Jodi Picoult and need to read more of her books. Picoult can be counted on to deliver a well-written, powerful, human narrative that’s still a relatively easy read. Looking for a “beach read” that’s great instead of trashy? JP is your woman. Here she partners with Boylan who is also a great writer, and in all honesty, it’s seamless and does not for a moment read like a collab.Mad Honey is compelling from the start with hero characters including Olivia, a single mom/power beekeeper/abuse survivor, Lily, a teen savant/cellist/depressive/also survivor, and Asher, a teen Prince Charming whose hidden depths- and hidden pain- no one but Lily truly sees.Quickly this becomes a murder mystery and trial procedural, so, again, super entertaining and also emotionally intense. For the first probably half of the book, I did not want to put it down.I really want to avoid spoilers here. I will say there’s a major plot twist, an interesting one, but unfortunately at this point the book takes a dive. There is SO MUCH explication to support the plot that the book becomes more of a textbook and less of a novel. For me personally I didn’t need 99% of this surrounding information, it was familiar to me – and I think it would be at least understandable to anyone who would love this book. This is the point where, I think, the writers needed to decide if they would rather just tell a story and let the reader fill in, or if they needed to inform and provide massive context, and they chose the latter. The book is about 30% longer as a result (insert head-banging emoji).I really loved the writing here; the character development; and the power and empathy with which the writers communicated painful and joyful things. But *just as a novel* it’s a super-flawed book: there’s all this endless explication, the ending is unsatisfying, *and* you can see the real whodunit coming from miles away.If I were not such a fan of the intent here, I’d say three stars.
Bibliomaniac –
The authors should be credited “Jennifer Finney Boylan with Jodi Picoult”
I tend to have a love/hate relationship with Jodi Picoult books. I live her stories, hate her endings. And I really hate that that’s the first thing that comes to mind in reviewing this book.It is an amazing book. The absolute best thing I can say about Picoult is that she doesn’t write the same book over and over. She tackles new topics in every book of hers that I’ve read, and I’ve read most of them. Sometimes I forget who I’m reading because every book is so different. I think even the writing style is unique to each story.But enough about Jodi, Jennifer, I’m sorry. It’s your story, literally your dream child, and Jodi gets top billing on everything, even in this review. But one thing she gets absolutely right is that she couldn’t have told this story without you because it isn’t her story to tell. I think this is my introduction to you and I will be reading much more. I’m also sorry you didn’t win the Detective Mike argument. Lol And I am curious who’s idea was the ending, the reveal of the culprit, so to speak. I blamed it on your coauthor because whack endings are the one thing that you can count on in a Picoult book but not having read you before, I admit I could be wrong.Regardless it’s an amazing book. To get 5* from me a book has to make me laugh and cry. And oh it did just that. I also have to have someone to root for. I loved almost all the characters and realistically every book has to have an antagonist or two, so the characters were perfect. I also should relate to it in some way no matter how small. There was a lot that could be pulled from my own story both as a child and as a mother.For some of my book club friends, to get five stars, they require a book to be something that everyone should read. Something that everyone can get something from. I haven’t looked yet to see how they rated it but for me, this is one of those books. I think we live in a time when being trans or enby or anywhere in the LGBTQ+ spectrum has so much more acceptance than ever before and at the same time so much more opposition. The more acceptance anything other than the “traditional male/female sex assignment” gets, the more those that think it’s truth need to fight to maintain their status quo. The strongest purpose of fiction is empathy. It’s to allow ourselves to walk around in another person’s shoes and find out how our preconceived notions are wrong and how they inhibit other people. Obviously if every person in the world read this book, many would identify more with Braden, or Lily’s father, or Dirk and completely miss the point. One of the book club questions is, can someone like them change. It’s not easy, but I have seen it happen. The reason there is more acceptance of differing genders is because people can change. But there are also people in this world like Olivia who just don’t have a cl inue until they have the first conversation, until the first time they walk around in those shoes. So I do think everyone should try all these various shoes on for size.
Miranda Erwin –
WOWZA
This book. Wow… This book. I was shocked at how much I just needed to read this every day, I needed to go to this place and keep up with their daily encounters. There’s a couple nice plot twists, I was shocked at the first one, the second I felt was coming, but couldn’t be 100% positive! If you don’t like the thought of reading about a subject that involves the LGBTQIA+ and those in that extraordinary community, then you may not enjoy this read. However, I recommend that you’re precisely the kind of person who may need, or benefit most, from reading this. These characters are so easy to fall in love with, and identify with. Truly a great read and even better story of a life journey you might just need to travel on.
Amazon Customer –
Started off great, but became too political for my taste
I thought the story line was great, but felt the author was trying to push their political beliefs on the audience. Just my opinion, but I felt I was being preached to in certain parts of the book, which isn’t why I chose this book to read.
Lorna Mc –
Another Picoult conundrum. Great read. Very pro transgender.
Sim –
Big no, its just so badly written and arrogantly long. The story could be 200 pages max and the fillers do nothing for story. This is my first Picoult novel and I am very disappointed. I got 70% through before I had to give up. Life is too short for bad books.
Tenten’s mom –
Jodi Picoult did it again! Literally smiling and teary-eyed ON THE BUS as I go through the chapters! I cannot put the phone (e-book) down! But I have to since I have a 5 yr old boy and a 5 month old girl… I love every minute of reading it!