As promised to my Instagram followers, this post includes a Mad Honey book review. I already talked about it briefly last week, but I felt like the short review I posted on Instagram and Goodreads didn’t do it justice.
So let me go into a bit more detail. Beware though, the review contains a few spoilers, so be warned! Although I feel that if I don’t give some things away I can’t really discuss the two main topics of the book.
Before I go any further, let me just say that the book made me feel so many strong emotions that I haven’t felt while reading a book since A Little Life. Not as heart-wrenching, but it came very close.
Synopsis
This riveting novel centers around two main characters, Olivia McAfee, and Lily Campanello.
Olivia has a seemingly picture-perfect life: married to a cardiothoracic surgeon, living in an affluent neighborhood in Boston, and raising Asher, their beloved son. But her life is not quite as perfect once she notices the dark side of her husband’s personality.
The only thing that makes sense to her is to pack up and leave. She returns home to Adams, New Hampshire, where she and her son can find some peace. Relocating to her childhood home, where she took over her parents’ beekeeping business, saves them from an abusive environment.
Lily is also used to starting over, as she and her mother got another chance at a fresh start in Adams. At her new school, Lily meets Asher, and they immediately hit it off. Lily finally feels like she’s connected with someone, but she still has reservations about trusting him completely. She decides to give it a chance and let herself feel happy, until tragedy strikes.
Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Can Olivia trust that her son is not an abusive person like his father? Or will her doubts ruin their relationship forever?
A suspenseful, emotional novel that explores a couple of very important topics we are faced with today.
Book Review
Let me start my Mad Honey book review.
Lily and Asher’s lives are intertwined by grief and although quite different, their experiences are similar.
Asher grew up without his father because his mother wanted to shield him from an abusive environment.
Lily is also estranged from her father but for different reasons. He never accepted her for what she is, therefore their relationship is nonexistent.
Spoiler!
Now comes the part that will spoil the book for you if you haven’t read it yet. So forgive me, but I cannot discuss this topic without giving the book away.
Being a Transgender Person
Lily was born a boy named Liam. That is the reason her father can’t accept her for what she is.
He has big issues with her son becoming a woman, therefore Lily and her mother leave him. The secrets and heartbreak Lily endures through puberty and while undergoing her changes are eye-opening yet heart-wrenching. Going through hormone therapy, surgery, and all the emotional roller-coaster of becoming who she was meant to be was not easy to deal with.
This quote explains how trans people feel, and it really made sense to me.
“I don’t think it’s an invisible chromosome, or the inability to get pregnant, or anything else, that makes people so cruel to transgender folks. I think what they hate is the difference. What they hate is that the world is complicated in ways they can’t understand.” – p.218
That paragraph really hit home with me. I noticed throughout life that people generally tend to like being around people that are just like them. If someone is different or doesn’t think the same way they do, they label them as weird and unworthy of their time. People are cruel to things unknown to them, and it is usually based on fear. Fear of the unknown.
This book made me really understand what a trans person feels like when they’re trapped in the wrong body. It was so well done that it clarified things in a way that I never thought of on my own. Just for that alone, I think this book should be read by absolutely everyone.
Secrets
What can we share, and what can we keep to ourselves?
The fact that Lily decided to keep some parts of herself hidden from even her best friend raised another issue. Even in intimate relationships, what do we need to share with our partner, and what are we allowed to keep private? Isn’t our body our own, and anything to do with it is our decision alone to figure out?
Domestic Abuse
Another point that I thought was well done in the book is about how Olivia, a smart, intelligent woman, was reduced to being made to feel as if she was less than she really was by her abusive husband.
That is another topic that many people seem to judge. How many times have I heard the comment, when referring to an abused woman: “Well, she must like it if she keeps going back to him?”
That is wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start. How can someone judge a person who has been so brainwashed by the one person they are supposed to trust most in the world into believing they are worthless? It’s a mouthful, but it gets me so riled up.
Olivia also puts it so well:
“Even if someone is violent, or a liar; even if he breaks your heart every time you hand it to him – that doesn’t necessarily stop you from loving him. The two are not mutually exclusive.” – p. 341
That is so well said, and it made me realize that you can love an abuser without necessarily reducing yourself to their level. Your love for them doesn’t make you unworthy of respect and love in return. Once more people understand that, maybe relationship dynamics can start shifting.
Concluding Words
This sums up my Mad Honey book review.
This just barely scratches the surface of these topics, but I thought the book covered them pretty well.
Although I must admit, the ending was a tad disappointing. But I will not spoil that for you!
I can go on and on about the topics that were talked about in this book, but I will stop now. I hope this post was eye-opening, and if at least one of you picks up this book after reading this article, I will be over the moon.
Until next time, keep reading fellow bookworms.
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