Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Book Review

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By Erin Collazo Miller, About.com Guide

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Courtesy Vintage Books

The Bottom Line

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd centers on Lily's search for a connection to her mother who died in a tragic accident when she was a toddler. Taking place in South Carolina in the 1960s, The Secret Life of Bees explores race, love and the idea of home in turbulent times. It is a lovingly written drama that keeps the pages turning. I highly recommend The Secret Life of Bees, especially to women and women's book clubs.

Pros

The Secret Life of Bees has loveable, well written characters
A sweet, Southern voice
Compelling story full of mystery, longing and love
Easy to read--not too long

Cons

Not entirely realistic (which isn't necessarily a con for everyone)

Description

A motherless child searching for the truth about her mother and herself
A black woman and white girl united in the South in the 1960s
Black Madonna Honey - the women who make it, the bees that produce it, and the spiritual figure

Guide Review - Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Book Review

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of Lily, a teenager on a peach farm in South Carolina whose mother died when she was young and whose father is abusive. In practice, Lily is raised by the black housekeeper, Rosaleen. When Rosaleen gets in a fight with some white men while she is going into town to register to vote, Lily and Rosaleen decide to take off together. They end up in a unique community that is the perfect place for Lily to look for her mother and learn to love herself.

The descriptions, characters and plot mix together to make The Secret Life of Bees a honey-sweet reading treat. Southern summer nights come alive in this novel, and you can almost taste the Coke with peanuts floating in it. The characters are well developed and interesting. There is enough suspense to keep The Secret Life of Bees from becoming too introspective as well.

Race issues run through the novel. Lily's relationships with black women and men and the town's willingness to ignore them are not entirely realistic; however, The Secret Life of Bees does a good job of conveying the underlying tension and inequalities that existed in the South in the 1960s.

The Secret Life of Bees also explores feminine spirituality. While this was not the strongest thread in the book, it worked well enough with the characters and events not to be a serious weakness.

I recommend The Secret Life of Bees. It is a wonderful debut novel that makes a quick and thoughtful weekend read.

User Reviews

3 out of 5

SLOB review, Member rpenabe

This Secret Life of Bees is about a fascinating Lilly Owens, a fourteen year old girl who is growing up on a peach farm in the South Carolina. This book takes you through her struggles to find herself as she embarks to find the truth about her past. But before she can do this, she must face the truth about her mother who died when she was young, and the truth behind her abusive father. Her only friend being her black nanny who has raised her since her mothers death, who was arrested for pouring snuff juice on a white man while trying to register to vote. As Lilly comes to her rescue in fear she will be killed by white locals, the two of them head to a near by town of ''Tiburon, South Carolina'' where she finds a bee farm run by a group of sisters who knew her mother. Her only memories of her mother are of a very young age and a few mementos left behind in a shoe box stuffed away in the attic by her father that she accidently finds. Amongst those mementos is a photo of a black Madonna and it is through that photo that Lilly is able to find what it is she is looking for and leads her to Tiburon. This book touches not only the struggles of people of color in the 1964 but it also touches on strength, beliefs and young love. It takes you through her life and the challenges she has faced growing up, who sees people for who they truly are and not based on the color of their skin. Who falls in love with a young man she knows she can never have and finds a family and love in a group of women who are so different from herself. It’s just wonderful to see how they bring her into their home and help her to find the answers she is looking for, introduce her to the life of bees and honey and how they help her grow. This is a good book for anyone, young and old. It’s a book of challenges and how they all these challenges can be overcome if you just believe. It shows how people of any race can not only open up their homes but can open up their hearts and see people for who they truly are. It’s amazing the struggles this young girl goes through and how she was able to overcome all those obstacles and grow into the young women she is meant to be and find happiness in the end. I find this book to be very inspiring and motivating. I found a lot of the book easy to relate to which I feel makes it more enjoyable to read. This book makes you think about the many struggles people have gone through in order to have rights to vote and rights to be free men and women. It touches on the struggles of abusive life which many people still face today and the struggles of being a teen in our society. It focuses on the pressures of teens and how much strength it takes to stand up for something you believe in and how it only takes one person to make a big difference in someone else’s life. This is a remarkable book and is a must read. I found it very enjoyable filled with laughter, sorrow and much more and I think you will too

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