Mad Honey - Book Review

4/5 stars ⭐️ no spoilers!

Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite writers. I have been reading her books since I was a teenager. 

I love the way she creates suspense, mystery, and momentum. The way she goes back and forth in time to reveal new details or show a scenario in a different light. And the plot twist that you never expect.

As a reader, she keeps you on your toes, pages flicking ferociously as you try to devour every word and learn the secrets hidden within. 

Mad Honey is no exception to her addicting formula. 

Written in collaboration with Jennifer Finney Boylan, on the outside, Mad Honey seems like a love story gone wrong, but it’s so much more.

Wrapped in identity, family, beekeeping, secrets, abuse, and freedom, Mad Honey tells the story of two teenagers in love, a mother finding herself, and an unexpected murder. 

The story starts slow and wholesome but quickly gets turned upside down when a teenage girl, Lily, is found dead. All fingers point towards her teenage boyfriend, Asher. 

Picoult is a great writer when it comes to law and medicine, explaining concepts vividly so anyone can understand them. You can tell she spends time researching the intricacies of these subjects to provide factual information and depictions.

This can be seen in Mad Honey with Lily’s secret. However, this time Picoult has Boylan’s help to shape this character and give her a soul.

I was reading this book during a time of busy study. I didn’t have much free time which was a BIG MISTAKE… because I could not put this down!!

The pace of the book works well and has your emotions riding a neverending rollercoaster. 

The characters are well-developed, multifaceted people whose character arcs are beautiful and surprising.

Scenes are set and gorgeously described in the American countryside. Yet they are not overcomplicated, leaving your imagination to create an idyllic paddock of bustling bees returning to their beehives sitting beside an old country home.

The authors purposely leave plot holes that can only be covered by continuing to read and realising that you can’t always trust the narrator to fill you in right away. 

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Picoult’s last book, A Spark of Light, because of the repeating of previous scenarios with only one or two additional pieces of information. It became boring even though the subject was heavy. I was worried Mad Honey would fall into the same trap. 

However, the anchor in the present-day scenario of the murder trial keeps the storyline in focus while using the flashbacks to effectively build characters and unwind secrets. 

I would recommend this book to crime and murder mystery fans but also to fans of romance (not the overly mushy kind), and cultural/gender identity. 

4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️