“People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
I think this quote truly sums up the entire book for me. I can honestly say, this is one of the most moving books I’ve ever read. Given what is going on in our current world of terrorism, the Black Lives Matter protests and a mess of other things, this book put it all into perspective for me.
There has been hundreds of reviews on this book, and I think I may have written a formal one in grade school (I’m not going to do that here, because it’s not fun)…
ANYWAY.
What I loved about this book the most is that before a chapter started, it listed a fact about the life of bee’s which in turn helped me understand some parts of the book better. The facts listed applied to the science of beekeeping and well…. To life!
To quickly summarize the book is told from Lily Owens perspective, the 14 year old girl who is on a hunt to find out more about her late mother which in the end helps her learn things about herself. Lily and her housekeeper Rosaleen run from her Daddy, T-Ray in Sylvan, South Carolina to escape what could be severe punishments. Lily and Rosaleen find refuge with a group of Black sister who own a honey business in Tiburon, South Carolina, a place where Lily believes her mother lived at one point in her life. Lily learns the trade of beekeeping and further learns that this is where she was meant to be. She was meant to find these women and with that she finds all the truth she has been looking for. This book is about finding your way through hardship, finding freedom and self confidence in abstract ways you might never have considered before. Lily Owens is the definition of bravery and is extremely symbolic in how young women should seek their self worth.
For most, the favorite character in the book is always the lead characters, who in this case are Lily Owens and August Boatwright (eldest sister, lead beekeeper). However, I really loved June Boatwright (whom I can assume in the middle sister). She was the most stubborn of the characters by far. I loved how she stood her ground on her views in marriage and was always skeptical of her surroundings. Her character felt the most real to be. She seemed to be the “realist” of the bunch, a characteristic I am usually most fond of. I also really loved May Boatwright (youngest of the 3) because she took on the pain of everyone else no matter how well she knew them. While some saw this as a burden and sadness, it was very beautiful to me the way she harbored that pain and cared so much that she was able to feel it herself. I wish more people were able to do this, but in a less intense way. All of the sister were polar opposites, which I think contributed greatly to the dynamic of the book. Feeling no shame in the small pieces that make up the entire being that you are. I think it began to shape Lily into the young lady she was becoming.
In most books that I read, I always wish the ending would have been different or wish the story as a whole had been written differently. But given that this is a classic, I genuinely don’t wish that. I think each climax in the story was written in at the perfect times and the language used really pertained to the overall tone of the story. Sometimes I feel like writers get so carried away with using complicated language, when really you just want the language to engage you more into the story. You don’t need to use big ass words to make your story read well!
This book is actually kind of hard to review because there are so many pieces to the story that would just reveal too much!
So I hope ya’ll read it and love it as much as I did. If you have, please comment your thoughts (Also, this is my first book review, so be kind, it is not meant to be formal in any manner).
If you’re interested, feel free to grab it from the link below!
Below I’ve inserted some really “political” thoughts that came about in my brain while reading this book.
Toodles!
xo, Sammy and Lucy
“Up until then I’d thought that white people and colored people getting along was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan. I thought of that policeman, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I’d lowered myself to be in this house of colored women, and for the very life of me I couldn’t understand how it had turned out this way, how colored women had become the lowest ones on the totem pole. You only had to look at them to see how special they were, like hidden royalty among us. Eddie Hazelwurst. What a shitbucket.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd was able to create a clear and concise picture and from what I can only imagine (and it makes me sad) accurate portrayal of what life was truly like for Black women of America in the 1960’s. This book is set in the midst of the civil rights movement, focusing on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a major hurdle for the Black community, as they were finally allowed to vote.
The violence and language in the book shows that segregation laws have changed but the overall tone of equality in our Black communities certainly has not. You’ve seen it everywhere, on the news.. internet… your backyard. It’s traumatizing. I’ve seen it. I saw it everyday in my highschool. That was 5 years ago. I wonder why in 5 years.. in 100 years, we’ve seemed to make such little progress. My friends are dying. They were dying then and they are dying now. I don’t mean for this to be a political post, but this book opened my EVEN MORE to what they had been exposed to before. Its breaks my heart that they are fighting this fight STILL. I stand with ALL black lives. All lives cannot matter until BLACK LIVES DO.
I cannot think of a more perfect time for my very little amount of readers to take a seat and read this book and then do further research on this subject. I urge you to become involved and stand for the rights of your neighbors, brothers and sisters, friends and family. Please stand for Black Lives.
Coffee With Lucy 