The Bee Sting: A Novel

this book was LENGTHY. do I regret reading it - no. do I recommend - maybe. honestly reading theories about the ending and symbolism of the book made me appreciate it a lot more. I struggled in the middle of the book with Imelda’s POV (although I understood the choice to forgo punctuation). After I pushed through that section, I couldn’t put the book down (especially any Cass POV). Overall, stunning prose but such a depressing book/characters.

Rollicking? Exuberantly comic? What did I miss?
Sad, unhappy people lack of communication in families
Bullying men, self-centred individuals.
Overall though, it was thought-provoking, debating at the Hist was interesting, the first law of debating, which side are you on?
Riches to rags and vice versa, small-mindedness.

There was a lot if hype about this book and I was very intrigued to read it. In all honesty, I was disappointed. It took me such a long time to actually get into this book (a very long book!), it felt a task to read it initially. But just over about half way through I started to enjoy it and thought I was starting to understand the authors style and book’s purpose a little clearer, and started to feel more invested in the characters, there was some really excellent writing (I really liked how he wrote as Imelda would due to her upbringing), and there was some really good content around Dickie that I wasn’t expecting at all, which again was brilliantly written and heart hitting. I liked that we got to know each of the characters well but often felt the detail was way too much. And I get that some may find the ending clever, but I felt deflated, I didn’t enjoy this ending at all, very disappointing and not at all clever (in fact a little arrogant) . This book was simply just not for me I’m afraid, I felt the return on my investment of time was rather cheated. Such a shame as I really had become invested.

I liked the characters in this book a lot. They were very closed off to one another yet claimed they know what the other thought. The ending was a surprise and I’m still trying to figure out what might have happened.

Ends on a cliffhanger. I enjoyed it and definitely didn’t know what would happen next. But it’s not the kind of book that you put aside feeling satisfied after reading. Left me unsettled and desperate for someone to chat with who had also read it.