The Death of Bees

From the very first page I fell in love with The Death of Bees, the debut novel of Lisa O’Donnell. Fifteen year old Marnie decides not to report the death of her parents and instead she and her sister, eleven year old Nellie, bury them in the back garden. The girls do not want to be separated or go into foster care. They tell everyone that their parents have gone to Turkey and this lie is easily accepted as the parents are druggies that have left their children alone before. The girls are haunted by their experience and while Nellie has nightmares, Marnie takes to drinking, and casual sex. Eventually the girls are befriended by Lennie, the elderly gay man next door and these three, along with Bobby the dog, bond together as a family. show more All is well until their grandfather shows up demanding explanations and wanting the girls to come live with him.

One of the things I absolutely loved about this book were the voices of the two girls, Marne in her own way was sensible and practical with very modern sensibilities while Nellie was romantic, hilarious and old-fashioned. What was very clear was that these girls loved and cared about each other. Although rather gruesome in places, the author had a light, sympathetic style and although the subject matter was at times appalling there was an element of black humor that made this story really appealing to me.

While this book won’t appeal to everyone, it was a stellar read for me. I found it both original and imaginative. My emotions were quickly engaged and The Death of Bees became a book that I couldn’t put down and one of my favorite reads of 2016. show less

Marnie is fifteen years old, and her sister Nelly is twelve. Their parents are dead now, but they were horribly neglectful when they were alive, and the girls have always more or less had to take care of themselves, so it doesn't really make all that much difference. Well, except for the difficulties involved in hiding their parents' deaths and the fact that they're buried in the back yard, to avoid being sent to foster care.

I really enjoyed this one. Which seems a little odd to say, because it's about kids who've led an awful, awful life doing things no kid should ever have to do, and it's full of misery after misery. But it never felt entirely depressing. Mostly it just kept me concerned for these kids and tensely focused on my hope show more that things would work out for them in the end, somehow. show less

[b:Lullabies for Little Criminals|22207|Lullabies for Little Criminals|Heather O'Neill|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327893204s/22207.jpg|23263] meets [b:The Cement Garden|9957|The Cement Garden|Ian McEwan|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1166111732s/9957.jpg|1189398].
The horrible alcoholic parents of two young teenage girls die within a day of each other, one by the hand of his wife, and then the wife by her own hand out in the garden shed.
Their children have little sympathy for the deaths. Their life of neglect and abuse have toughened them, and they know that if the authorities become aware of the loss of their parents then they will be taken into 'care' by the social services, a highly undesirable result. So show more after being prompted by the smell and mess of progressive decomposition, they bury the dead in the garden. Under the lavender. It is a gruesomely funny scene.
The story is told in alternating voices of the two sisters and their old gay neighbour who becomes entwined in their lives. The voice of the older sister is convincing; she is teenagerly-tough and funny and still vulnerable. Other characters become interesting when they turn out differently from our preconceptions.
Despite the nature of the story, it's surprisingly light and funny. A good summer read. show less

Gripping, touching, enjoyable…but flawed.

Lisa O’Donnell’s debut novel, Death of Bees, is a compelling coming-of-age story that takes readers on a troubling and touching journey deep into the emotional lives of its characters. This is an adult book that deals with mature themes of parental abuse and neglect, incest, consensual sex with minors, drunkenness, homosexuality, brutality, cruelty, abject poverty, illegal immigrants, illegal drugs, and teen sex; however, these themes are handled in a manner which makes the book suitable for most young adults. Teens will want to read the book and parents can rest assured it should do them no harm.

The novel tells the story of two sisters, Marnie (age 15) and Nelly (age 11), who have suffered show more from extreme parental neglect and abuse. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the two girls as they are in the process of trying to bury the bodies of their dead parents in the backyard. The girls hope to be able to live on their own undetected by authorities for at least a year until Marnie turns 16 and is legally able to take care of herself and her younger sister. The last thing they want is to taken in by social services and potentially separated from each other and the only life and friends they know. Naturally, their plans go awry and readers are caught up with growing anticipation and dread wondering how these two vulnerable girls are going to get themselves out of the dire predicaments that unfold as the year progresses. Along the way, the girls show amazing strength of character and discover just how far their resilience will take them. Eventually, when their bravery and psychological endurance is tested to the limit, adults come to their rescue and life takes a turn for the better.

Most readers will probably enjoy this book and recommend it to their friends. I would not be surprised to see this book rated, on average, four-and-a-half stars. The characters are fascinating, realistic, and complex. The pacing is faultless, the prose and dialog straightforward and natural. It’s a gripping tale—a good and deserving book.

But I’m not like most readers. I’ve read and reviewed quite a lot of fiction over the years and sometimes my understanding of the mechanics of storytelling can get in the way of my pleasure. That is what happened with this book. About three-quarters of the way through the book, I started seeing the storytelling mechanics behind the plot and that made me stop believing in the story. The setting and the characters remained realistic, but I no longer believed the story or the storyteller. I felt like the book had entered the contrived territory of make-believe.

Now, don’t get me wrong; the horrid, drug-infested, survival-of-the-fittest world described in the book is spot-on perfect. There were times when I gasped at the honesty and reality of the descriptions. But toward the end, too many far-fetched circumstances started to fall into place in an effort to propel the plot toward its conclusion and tie up all the loose ends along the way.

In real life, things do not go that smoothly, nor do they get resolved so neatly. I wanted a lifelike happy tale pieced together from gritty reality; instead I got a fairy tale with lots of scenes of gritty reality. There is a big difference, and for me, that made all the difference…or, at least in this case, the difference between a three-star and a four-star rating. show less

Marnie, 15, and Nelly, 12, are sisters who have just buried their parents, Gene and Izzy, in the backyard in The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell. When their father is discovered dead by their mother, who then hangs herself in the shed, the girls decide to bury them both in the backyard so Marnie and Nelly can stay together and won't be sent to foster care. Once Marnie is sixteen she can legally be on her own and take care of Nelly, guaranteeing that they will both be safe.

Even when their drug addicted, alcoholic, neglectful, and irresponsible parents were alive, the girls were often on their own, fending for themselves. What the girls weren't counting on was Lenny, their elderly gay next-door neighbor in their Glasgow, Scotland, housing show more estate noticing their parents had, by all appearances, abandoned them. He steps up to offer some measure of stability and support for them. He believes the girls when they tell him that their parents have left the country for an extended trip in Turkey. With Lenny, the trio form an odd family-like relationship - until their grandfather enters the picture.

Although the details of the circumstances that cause the girls to accept Lenny's companionship are gruesome, they make an endearing set of misfits. The chapters are all in Marnie, Nelly, or Lenny's voice. Marnie's chapters are hard. She's drinking, smoking, promiscuous, and seemingly headed down the same destructive path as her parents, even though she is an intelligent teen who could potentially overcome her circumstances. She's a realist, tough talking, and brutally blunt and to the point. Nelly's chapters are often short. She is a violin prodigy, who is most certainly on the autism spectrum. She often speaks in a stilted old-fashioned manner and is socially awkward. Lenny's chapters are all written as if he is talking to his longtime companion and lover who recently died. He's been labeled the neighborhood pervert, but he is longing for redemption. He wants to care for another person again and he slowly takes the girls under his wing, caring for them as best he can even while he doesn't quite understand the extent of the psychological damage that has already been done to them.

What you might not expect is the humor mixed in with the grim in this coming-of-age story that also deals with normal adolescence pressures. The characters are believable and well developed. To be honest, the beginning chapters, when the girls are burying their parents, are repulsive and gruesome. But as the book continues it is painfully clear that all of these characters are wounded in some way. By the time the girls and Lenny connect, it is slowly becoming more and more apparent just how much they all need each other. Since we get to hear each of their individual voices, I felt a connection to all three of them and wanted desperately for everything to be okay - even though they were all in an impossible situation where a good ending seemed highly unlikely.

The writing was also incredible. Even when relating the most appalling details, O'Donnell manages to insert bits of humor. The bond between sisters is palatable, even when they are feuding, we know that they will eventually reunite and forgive. I appreciated the unspoken message that we can decide what will constitute a family; even an unconventional family is still a family and can offer love, support and stability. While O'Donnell is an accomplished screenwriter, this is her debut novel - and what a glorious debut it is. Grim, yes, but also very well crafted. I'll be looking forward to another novel from Lisa O'Donnell. (The trade paperback of The Death of Bee was just released on October 22, 2013.)

Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes. show less

Lisa O'Donnell is my new favorite writer. She sets her novels in Scotland, though their origins are universal: children struggling in a world where loathsome and/or incompetent adults hold sway.

Marnie and Nelly are Glaswegians whose parents are drug addled and criminally neglectful. When they get their just desserts, the girls try to stay together and to avoid detection. This is a common theme, but here, in alternating voices, is a story of uniqueness, courage, strength, and powerful love.

The girls' next door neighbor is an older gay man, Lennie, whose lover had recently died. He is by nature a nurturer and saves the girls in every possible way, especially when their missing maternal grandfather returns to claim them, and Marnie knows show more right away that he's "off".

This book made my heart hurt and heal. Most highly recommended. show less

A. maz. ing. This is one of those books that I desperately want to discuss with someone in real life. I'm hoping I can get my book group to read it.

O'Donnell tells her story in three different voices, all residents of a housing project in Glasgow:
Marnie is crass, worldly, and wise beyond her 15 years.
Nelly, her 12-year-old sister, seems to be on the autism spectrum (although undiagnosed) and talks like the Queen of England.
Lennie, the girls' neighbor, is an elderly, homosexual mourning the loss of his lover.
Each voice is so distinct and so believable, that's it's very easy to navigate the frequent changes in narrator. It's also very easy to fall in love with these characters.

This novel could be YA, but only for teens whose parents show more aren't trying to shelter them from the darker side of the world: profanity, drug use, neglect, sex...especially between minors and adults. Because all of that is normal in Marnie's world. She's been responsible for herself and Nelly since she was five years old. She's always done what it takes to protect herself and her sister. Then her drug-addicted parents' both die, less than a year short of Marnie's 16th birthday, at which point Scottish law will apparently consider her an adult capable of caring for her younger sister. The girls know that if they don't keep their parents' deaths a secret from everyone, they'll end up the foster care system. Their secret becomes increasingly difficult to keep with drug-dealers looking for their father, and the grandfather who long ago abandoned his family looking for their mother.

The setting is grim, and yet there is love, joy and hope sprinkled through out. Their neighbor Lennie has been labeled as a sex-offender, and yet, he is the kindest, most loving person in the sisters' lives. Another supporting character with a shady past also plays a surprising role in the girls' lives, while their one living relative proves just as toxic as the parents who abandoned them repeatedly while alive, before finally abandoning them permanently. I found it fascinating that while Lennie and Vlado are conventionally considered undesirables, they offer the girls unconditional love and support. In some ways, they are both atoning for their past sins, but in other ways that's just who they are. Robert T. MacDonald, on the other hand, seemed to have a soft side in taking Sandy under his wing, but then showed his true colors when he found out about Sandy's past.

The only issue I had with the book was the pacing. The first part of the book is quite slow, setting up the characters' background, but also seeming to circle the same subject matter again and again. Then suddenly the plot picks up steam and things start happening. But the end, events are flying by at top speed and several coincidences grease the wheels a little too conveniently. (I have no idea where all those train metaphors just came from.) However, I grew to love these characters so much that I happily went along for the ride. show less