Books Set in North America: New Hampshire, United States

Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (2022)

 

Jodi Picoult’s book tackle timely social topics and Mad Honey is no different.  Her books also come with twists – some the reader may seem coming and others that come as a complete surprise.  This novel deals with both domestic violence and transgender issues.

 

The underlying theme of beekeeping and honey is, of course, a metaphor for life.  Mad Honey refers to the honey made from rhododendrons and mountain laurels.  The grayanotoxins from these flowers can make one very ill.  Mad honey is deceptive, because you believe it to be sweet, but not to be deadly.  It isn’t until after you become ill, that you realize the potency of the honey.

 

In this novel, high school senior Asher McAfee is living with his mother in northern New Hampshire.  They moved there when he was a young child after his mother left his abusive father.  His mother took over her family’s beekeeping operation following the death of her father.

 

In his final year of high school, he meets Lily Campanello, newly arrived from the west coast.  Like Asher, Lily is living with her single mother, having fled a troubled relationship with her father.  Lily has deep secrets and to keep these secrets, she lies about her past.  Some big lies, some small lies, and some lies of omission.

 

The novel goes back and forth in time.  The novel is told mostly in the voice of Asher’s mother Olivia, and in flashback, in Lily’s voice.

 

The book opens with Asher cradling the body of Lily at the bottom of the staircase in her home.  It appears they had a fight and Asher is charged with her murder.  Throughout the long trial, in which Asher’s uncle is the defense counsel, evidence is presented that could be interpreted to present a guilty verdict.  Mixed into the texture of the novel are tidbits about bees and honey.  I found these to be more interesting than the trial itself.

 

Read:  October 15, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North America: United States, Madison, Wisconsin and Seattle, Washington

This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel (2017)

 

When Dr. Rosie Walsh is pregnant with her fifth child, she hopes for a girl.  Her four other children are all boys.  Her fifth child is also a boy, whom they name Claude.  By age 3, Claude announces that when he grows up he wants to be a fireman, a truck, a girl.  All the things that young children imagine they will be when they grow up.  By age 5, however, he is wearing dresses and wants to be a princess.

 

The family takes Claude’s quirks in stride.  Then they realize that Claude is transgender.  He decides his name is Poppy.  To her older brothers, Poppy is just another sibling.  In kindergarten, her classmates just treat him as another kid in the class.  All is well until the father of a classmate freaks out and threatens the family.

 

The family moves from Madison, Wisconsin to Seattle, Washington where they feel the environment will be more welcoming to a transgender child.  Once in Seattle, however, Poppy’s birth gender is kept a secret.  A secret that the whole family keeps, but one that can’t be hidden forever.

 

This novel dealt with the issue of raising a transgender child.  It provided a lot of research in the trials and tribulations that the family and the child encounter.  In this book, the family was loving and accepting, but the author also emphasized problems trans children encounter when their families are not so accepting.

 

Sadly, for me, this book fell apart in the last section when Poppy and her mother travelled to Thailand where Rosie would temporarily be practice in a remote clinic in the Thai jungle.  I understand why the author took us there, but it just didn’t seem in keeping the the tenor of the rest of the novel.

 

Read:  May 25, 2021

 

4 Stars