Mad Honey

Olivia McAfee left an abusive marriage several years ago and now earns a living raising bees and selling their honey. Her son Asher is now a high-school senior, popular with his peers and generally a nice guy. Asher came to the aid of Lily, a new girl at school who was being hit on by another boy, and they ultimately became a couple. Then one afternoon, Asher arrives at Lily’s house to find her alone, collapsed at the foot of the stairs and bleeding heavily. Lily dies of her injuries and Asher becomes a murder suspect. This sets up a compelling narrative, told in alternating chapters by Olivia in the present day, and Lily in the months before she died.

In Olivia’s chapters we see a mother fiercely defending her son, while also show more fearing he has been secretly abusive, much like his father. Lily’s chapters describe her relationship with Asher and move in reverse chronological order from her recent move from California to New Hampshire back to early childhood. Each chapter reveals information important to solving the crime, and makes for an intriguing mystery.

But this novel goes deeper than a typical mystery, by including transgender characters. This collaboration between two well-known authors, one a trans woman, normalizes transgender people, educates readers on some fundamental concepts, and shows the cruelty trans people are often subjected to. Highly recommended. show less

I rarely give 5 stars; there are so many good books in this world - but few that address controversial topics and give me pause to think like this one.
I never thought I liked Jodi Picoult - picking up her books over the years and often DNF them. This book has been in our library for a while now and it was after a patron said to me “This book is okay if you like gays and bees!” - I figured why not try it?
I will be recommending it over and over again for a while.

A powerful novel! A must read for both parents and teens. A small town in New Hampshire, A volatile teen romance and a murder is the center of the story of Mad Honey. Imagine you are a citizen of small town near the white mountains and the high school's star hockey player is on trial for murdering his girlfriend.

The novel's plot would have reader believing that Asher could have killed his girlfriend Lily but during the trial a major discovery is introduced. Lily was a trans woman! The novel proceeds from that point to help the readers understand what a transgender person witnesses their entire life. For those readers who are not open minded about the trans community, you should definitely read this novel. In my lifetime, I was show more privileged to have a friend who went through the whole process as Lily did.

One line in the book which reminded me of the sadness both Lily.and my friend lived as the fact they both wished to have dolls and their Fathers would not allow them to have their own dolls. The sadness which I felt my friend, I felt for Lily. The miracle of birthing a perfectly formed baby can be deceiving when the biology of the child can not be seen.

Please read this book.for a better understanding of the life of a transgender person. show less

My heart. If I could sum up this review with any word or cliche that could entice others to read this book, it would be that my heart will never be the same.

Asher and Lilly are seniors in a small New England town. They talk, they laugh, they learn about each other, they make love. They are exactly how all eighteen year olds are: fresh, experimental, hopeful, dreamers. But following a heated argument, Asher finds Lilly dead at the bottom of her stairs and is charged with first degree murder. It is then that everyone learns things are not as they seem.

As simplistic as that summation may sound, Mad Honey is one of the most powerfully detailed depictions of life as a transgender person living in a cisgender world that I have come across. show more The way the authors have spun a thread of ‘normalcy,’ ‘sameness,’ and ‘perception’ stops the reader short when it is revealed half-way through this voluminous read, that Lilly is transgender.

Every parent, every person, will love and understand Lilly, Asher, and Asher’s mom, Olivia. You will relate and feel your emotions and remember being a teenager in your first relationship and then BANG - you will be forced to check everything you thought was ‘real.’ Masterfully written. Superbly crafted to hook the reader so that even transphobes will be compelled to read to the end to see whodunit and why. Genius, really.

Written from two perspectives, that of Olivia in the present and Lilly moving backward from the date of her death, the authors suck you in, draw you out exposing your underbelly until they zing you. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Mad Honey has filled my heart with hope that all people can be their true and authentic selves, fall in love, master a craft or a sport, lead a life filled with hopes, dreams, friends, lovers, and experience life to its fullest.

As good as the book is, the author’s notes at the end are equally powerful and a must be read.

If I haven’t yet sold you on reading Mad Honey, how about this: It’s been banned in many settings and many geographical areas. Why? Because it strikes a chord “they” don’t want you to feel. They don’t want you to relate to transgender people. They don’t want you to root for, fall in love with, hope for, or see yourself in the situation of either Lilly or Asher; where you might do all those things for and with a transgender person. They don’t want the thought of cisgender people loving, understanding, or accepting transgender people.

I’ve said enough. I’ve not said a fraction of what this book makes me feel. I’ve been digesting this one for a while.

Read, Mad Honey. show less

On the surface, this is a tried-and-true trope: girl is murdered, boy is accused, mother stands by her son. But, as one might suspect with a book by Picoult and Boylan, there is a whole lot more going on here. There are several unexpected twists, not to mention more than a few turns. Told in alternating chapters, Olivia, Asher's mother, tells the story going forward from Lily's death and Lily herself tells her story going backward from the same time. Together, the two stories form a brilliant picture of Lily and Asher, together and separately, and of the difference between things that are private and things that are secret.

Are there a few hanging threads here? Yes. After making dramatic (re)entrances, both Lily and Asher's fathers sort show more of disappear. And there's a lot in here that would, in the hands of lesser writers, be deemed pedantic, as we learn the ins and outs of beekeeping, among other topics. Instead of feeling like information that isn't really relevant to the plot is being forced on me, as I have in other books, I just found it interesting, like I was just having a nice conversation with an acquaintance. And I really wish I could have a nice conversation with these characters. Or their authors.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review. show less

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. And I mean that in the absolute best of ways. Sometimes when you pick up a book and you think you know what it's about, and then it's nothing that you thought it was about but you love it anyways. That is this book! I should've known that Picoult would provide deliciously complicated characters. I should've known that it would be a morally murky situation. Which I did. What I didn't know was the why. And as always when you find out the why, she really makes you examine things. Picoult never gives a straight forward morale, the world is full of grey and she doesn't shy away from it. *I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in show more exchange for my honest review. show less

Olivia and her six-year-old son, Asher, moved to Adams New Hampshire to escape an abusive marriage. She has moved into her father’s home and taken over his beekeeping business. Now, a decade later, Asher is handsome, co-captain of his school’s hockey team, a good student, in fact, a seeming all-around good kid.

Ava Campanello and her daughter, Lily, have recently moved to Adams to start a new life. Lily attends the same school as Asher and, when they meet, it’s instant chemistry. They are in love but it is a somewhat fractious relationship. Then Lily is found dead and Asher is the main, really the only, suspect and is charged with her murder.

Mad Honey is a collaboration between two writers, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. show more it starts out like a typical whodunnit but it is so much more than that. The story is told by Olivia and Lily in alternating voices and it is a complex tale of families, secrets, memory, loss, and grief but also about the freedom to be yourself with the acceptance of those who love you.

Mad Honey is a well-written and extremely compelling story with characters who it is Impossible not to care about. This is also a book that revolves around a very topical and, sadly, controversial issue and will likely be loved or hated based on one’s feelings about the issue. But, as the authors show so beautifully. despite all our flaws and seeming differences, we are more alike than we tend to believe.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less