REVIEW: Mad Honey

By Denise @ Life With No Plot on June 10, 2024 • ( 0 )

About the Book

Title: Mad Honey

Author: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Series: none

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, LGBT

Pages: 464

Edition Read: Kindle eBook

Dates Read: March 16-23, 2024

Blurb: A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Review

This was a book club selection for March and I am very glad that it was because otherwise I probably never would have read it. I have heard of Jodi Picoult – who hasn’t – but had never read any of her work. I really liked this partnership with her and Finney Boylan, especially given the dual nature of the narrative.

Speaking of that narrative, the story goes back and forth between Olivia’s point of view during Asher’s incarceration and trial and Lily’s point of view in the events leading up to her death, including moving to town and meeting Asher. The one thing I really liked about this book was the fact that through the entire thing, no matter whose narrative it was, you were never sure whether or not Asher was innocent. He claims that he was, that he found Lily dead in her house, but it was also known that they had had an argument and that Asher had a temper. Olivia doesn’t want to believe her son would do such a thing, but she also remembers her ex-husband, Asher’s father, who would be charming and loving in front of other people but turn abusive behind closed doors.

Lily’s story doesn’t necessarily paint Asher in an innocent light either. They are madly in love and have a mostly wonderful relationship, but there are a few times that she remembers him getting angry – one time grabbing her arm hard enough to bruise. There is also a fairly large reveal about Lily which explains why she moved away from her home to come to live in Asher’s town. It’s a fairly big spoiler, so I’m not going to say what it is here, but it is fairly major. Enough so that someone could feel like they were lied to and could get angry about. Angry enough to kill? That’s the big question, isn’t it.

Once we got to Asher’s trial, there were some parts that the pacing felt really strange. Also, some of the tactics of his attorney were weird and seemed really random – I don’t think it would be something brought forward in a real trial. I’m not going to say whether or not Asher is found guilty or not guilty, but I will say that I felt a bit let down by the ending, particularly when the actual truth gets uncovered. Despite that, it was a very strong book overall and it really kept me coming back and wanting to find out more about what happened.

GoodReads rating: 4 stars