Jennifer Finney Boylan

People always talk about how their love for you is unconditional. Then you reveal your most private self to them and you find out how your most private self to them and you find out how many conditions there are in unconditional love." p. 174
I have read many Jody Picoult books. At a certain point I decided not to read any more, but this was a book club choice.
What I liked: It gave me something to think about. I learned a lot about a subject that I knew very little about.
What I did not like: It hits all the Jody Picult tropes: family drama, a crisis involving a current social issue, a legal thriller, surprise ending.
This novel has the entire formula and therefore becomes predictable. Every current social issue is included: gender identity, gender confirmation surgery abuse, same-gender marriage, interracial marriage, jail conditions, abortion, suicide, the definition of feminism, intergenerational trauma, and murder.
Yes, life is messy but this was too much. I listened at 1.5 just to complete my obligation.… (meer)

I always appreciate the complex topics Picoult writes about. Almost always, there is a major twist at the end. This book does not disappoint in that regard. Told in alternate timelines by different narrators, the book occasionally got a little confusing. The focus on beekeeping was interesting, but got a little too much after awhile…it didn’t really add to the plot. Picoult handles the interwoven themes of teens in love, transgenderism, and a murder mystery with her usual aplomb. This is a “must read” in my opinion.… (meer)

My heart. If I could sum up this review with any word or cliche that could entice others to read this book, it would be that my heart will never be the same.

Asher and Lilly are seniors in a small New England town. They talk, they laugh, they learn about each other, they make love. They are exactly how all eighteen year olds are: fresh, experimental, hopeful, dreamers. But following a heated argument, Asher finds Lilly dead at the bottom of her stairs and is charged with first degree murder. It is then that everyone learns things are not as they seem.

As simplistic as that summation may sound, Mad Honey is one of the most powerfully detailed depictions of life as a transgender person living in a cisgender world that I have come across. The way the authors have spun a thread of ‘normalcy,’ ‘sameness,’ and ‘perception’ stops the reader short when it is revealed half-way through this voluminous read, that Lilly is transgender.

Every parent, every person, will love and understand Lilly, Asher, and Asher’s mom, Olivia. You will relate and feel your emotions and remember being a teenager in your first relationship and then BANG - you will be forced to check everything you thought was ‘real.’ Masterfully written. Superbly crafted to hook the reader so that even transphobes will be compelled to read to the end to see whodunit and why. Genius, really.

Written from two perspectives, that of Olivia in the present and Lilly moving backward from the date of her death, the authors suck you in, draw you out exposing your underbelly until they zing you. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Mad Honey has filled my heart with hope that all people can be their true and authentic selves, fall in love, master a craft or a sport, lead a life filled with hopes, dreams, friends, lovers, and experience life to its fullest.

As good as the book is, the author’s notes at the end are equally powerful and a must be read.

If I haven’t yet sold you on reading Mad Honey, how about this: It’s been banned in many settings and many geographical areas. Why? Because it strikes a chord “they” don’t want you to feel. They don’t want you to relate to transgender people. They don’t want you to root for, fall in love with, hope for, or see yourself in the situation of either Lilly or Asher; where you might do all those things for and with a transgender person. They don’t want the thought of cisgender people loving, understanding, or accepting transgender people.

I’ve said enough. I’ve not said a fraction of what this book makes me feel. I’ve been digesting this one for a while.

Read, Mad Honey.… (meer)