The Death of Bees
I had to sit on this one for a while. Death of Bees is in a word, bizarre. I'm still not even sure if I can say whether or not I liked it. The story is not a happy one. It's raw, gruesome and depressing. The story is told through the voices of sisters Nelly and Marnie and their elderly neighbor Lennie. Nelly and Marnie find their parents dead and decide to bury them in the garden to avoid going into foster care. As each person speaks, the reader learns more about the miserable lives that Nelly and Marnie have had up to now. Not that it gets any better after they are on their own.I think the thing that I didn't like about the book was as I was reading I just kept getting more and more down. I never really felt a sense of hope for either girl. I know Marine is a product of her parents. Nelly definitely has something odd about her. I didn't really like either of the girls. I just felt really bad for them. I did like Lennie. What he did for the girls was wonderful and amazing.
This is just a really hard book to review for me. I think it is one of those that each reader has to experience for themselves. I'm not totally sure if I would recommend it to everyone, maybe just a select few people to whom I know this time of book would appeal.
