Mad Honey: a Novel by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Boylan. New York: Ballantine Books, 2022. 464 pages. *****+
Told in the alternating voices of Olivia McAfee and Lily Campanello, both women are starting over hoping for a better life. Olivia thought she had it all, married to a successful cardiothoracic surgeon, raising her son, Asher, fast-forward to now living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
Lily and her mother move to New Hampshire for Lily to complete her high school education in a new school.
Olivia and Lily cross paths when Asher and Lily fall in love. Everyone has a secret past and a trust issue, however, nothing prepares them for Asher being arrested as a murderer.
I received an ecopy from Netgalley for a review.
Heavy on bee information, some may find it superfluous, however, the nature of the bees and their life in the colony adds dimension to the story. Since reading this book, I have heard about "mad honey" on the news (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nVg_ZOfCso)
Not for everyone, readers will either love or hate this book. I hope that you will stick with it, I can't stop thinking about everything that I learned and understood by the end especially about a society that rejects you based on who you are. The Author's Note as written by each author takes the story in another direction. The fact that the story is collaborative adds depth to the whole and now I really want to know who wrote which character's story. Jodi Picoult does not shy away from controversial societal issues and there are many in this story. An early ad for the book touts it as one "sure to be banned" which elicited negative comments before it is even published. While true, I hope it does not discourage libraries or readers from purchasing it. Highly recommended for Book Clubs, there are so many topics and points of view for discussion
Information on Mad Honey -
https://bigthink.com/health/mad-honey/
https://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/strange-history-hallucinogenic-mad-honey/
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight novels, including Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire. For more information on Jodi, click here
Jennifer Finney Boylan is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books. She is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University and a 2022–2023 Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. A nationally known advocate for human rights, she is a trustee of PEN America. For many years she was the national co-chair of GLAAD as well as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean, and a daughter, Zai. For more information on Jennifer, click here
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