The Honeys

The writing felt too pretentious and wordy. It would go from being normal and then flash to surreal. The weirdness reminded me of Bunny which I also didn't like 

Wasn't interested in the story after a while. 

Do I integrate, or do I defy?

I listened to the audiobook, which the narrator did an excellent job of bringing this novel to life. In addition to a fabulous performance, I really enjoyed the sprinkles of sound effects such as the bees buzzing and twinkling sound effects. Definitely check the audiobook out.

That being said, I liked this YA horror. I enjoyed the atmospheric scenery, it almost felt like Aspen Academy was also a character. As someone who listed gothic fiction as an area of interest, it was so fun being able to see the different elements of horror throughout the journey. From vengeful bees to psychological trances, it was very delightful.

However, there are flaws. I thought the pacing was awkward at times. The title also suffered from introducing too many characters that get mentioned once and we never hear about them again. I was also not a super huge fan of the ending, it felt rushed and a bit messy.

I'm going to go find someone to hold pinkies with and skip away into the fields.

I didn't really know what this book was about when I picked it up, all I knew is that it came up in a lot of lists during the trans rights readathon so I added it to my TBR.

There's a lot that I really liked about this book, like the fact that it started with a bang and generally got moving pretty quickly. The foreshadowing of things was done really nicely, and the imagery was fantastic. Mars was a phenomenal character too. What I didn't care for was the parents aspect which just didn't land for me and was just sort of eh ok.

3.25 rounded down.

3.5* rounded up for the cute cover and the creepy chapter headings.

A book about grief, belonging and bees. A genderfluid queer kid goes back to summer camp to investigate the mysteries about their twin sister's death.
Can Mars be accepted, do they want to be, who by?
There's horror and romance, bees and honey. It gets a bit weird towards the end which pulled the rating down for me but I'm glad I stuck with it.

the first 240 pages were boring and the last 100 were insane

I picked up this book because i loved Bunny by Mona Awad and was looking for something similar, and i got exactly that with this book.

If you love weird fever dream LGBTQ horror, you'll love this.

Also, this is the first book that i read with a gender fluid character and i loved that. 

read for the tarot readathon 2023: strength &read for the final chapter book club (june)

i loved the themes, the writing, the representation, the setting, the ending. it was so good. 

a very solid 4.5 stars, highly recommended if you like bees and/or girls being creepy but also loving

fucked up and fun

I am not generally a person to notice or be affected by beautiful writing. Then I read this book. The writing is beautiful! Mars is a unique character with a really distinctive voice. He was a realistic cynic and the prose written around him is beautiful. As Mars is growing and learning, the prose changes as well. I am really stunned by the amazing writing.
As to plot, there were times that the plot seemed to go along with expected tropes, but the characters made the expected tropes feel refreshed. But there were significant parts of the plot that were unique and unexpected. And the cottagecore vibes were so strong! It was a vital part of the book.

Woah. Just woah.

This book oh my word this book.

This was completely not what I was expecting. The beginning had me hooked for a book that was nothing like this, but that's not a bad thing. This book led me in so many directions that I wasn't expecting that once I finished it I sort of had to just sit there and try to take it all in.

We begin the novel with the protagonist Mars's (who is genderfluid and uses he/they/she pronouns) sister Caroline coming into his bedroom in the middle of the night and smashing him over the head with a sundial. As she continues trying to murder Mars, they fall through the banister and plummet to Caroline's death. Just, what a beginning.

This entire book has such a horrifying atmosphere (obviously, since it's a horror) but all of the bee imagery and also the treatment of Mars by the other campers at camp Aspen, where Mars once left, but returned to after their sister died. Everything with Callum and Brayden and all that was so upsetting to read about.
The book really gets creepy once Mars and her supervisor (and crush) Wyatt venture into an abandoned hotel and find Brayden, where he proceeds to literally melt in the most disgusting and horrific scene I have ever read in a book!!

Although this book is a horror, I did find quite a bit of it quite homely and relaxing; mostly when Mars is with the Honeys or Wyatt, and things are actually going okay for him. The end did become very confusing with many plot twists and finally ended with Mars becoming queen of the hive and all of that confusing stuff that I really struggled to understand. This book ended in a completely different direction to what I expected, but not in a bad way.

I found the ending, where Mars was talking to Wyatt after everything, and how scared and traumatised he (Wyatt) was, and Mars explaining about how they didn't feel like themself to be quite a depressing ending and I sort of felt like crying after I finished, after everything that had happened in the book. This book was my first horror and I utterly loved it! Just, wow.

I think I will stick to LaSala's fluffier books henceforth cause I just didn't enjoy the creep factor at all.