The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees
book data
115,063 ratings, 3.84 average rating, 11,623 reviews (more data...)
edit

published
January 28th 2003 (first published 2002) by Penguin (Non-Classics)

binding
Paperback, 302 pages

characters

setting
The United States

isbn
0142001740    (isbn13: 9780142001745)

description
In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owens, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours ima...more




Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.


topics  posts  views  last activity   
The Next Best Boo...: The Last Letter Game 1132 904 8 minutes ago  
Novel Ladies: Author Alphabet 640 51 28 minutes ago  
The Next Best Boo...: Your Latest Splurge 5984 6342 1 hour, 12 min ago  

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 148,709)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only


Dolly
07/11/07
Dolly rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: thought-provoking
Read in April, 2004
recommends it for: people who like Southern-flavored coming-of-age books and
I confess to being a little hesitant going into this book. It is, after all, that most cliched and irritating of literati faves: a coming-of-age story set in the American South. Lily, a motherless 14-year-old girl lives with her bigoted abusive father on a peach farm in South Carolina. Her goals involve befriending black people and finding information about her long-dead mother. Just summarizing this thing inspires the eye-rolling.

But the book does have some saving graces. First, the...more
Like this review?   yes   (35 people liked it)
  3 comments

Kerry
03/08/07
Kerry rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2003
recommends it for: Chicks
Okay, hear me out. This is SO not the kind of book I normally read. It's the kind of book my mother reads. You know the type I'm talking about: "Reviving Ophelia", "Not Without My Daughter"...mother-y books. It was, in fact, my mother who demanded I read this book, because she read it in her book club. DOUBLE red flag. That is when I normally drop the book and run as fast as possible away from her, screaming and flailing my arms. But when she gave me this book I happen...more
Like this review?   yes   (30 people liked it)
  3 comments

Sammy
05/29/07
Sammy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: the-best
Read in January, 2005
Ahhh! *gasp* *choke* *stammer* I can barely find the words to say how much I loved this book. Honestly, The Secret Life of Bees has to be one of the best books I've read in a while. I just want to give it several A+'s and a kiss!

It was touching, well-written, beautiful, full of expression, insightful, anything you could want in a book and then some. It started off with a bang, that wasn't a bang... it grabbed you, but didn't startle you so much that the rest of the book was dull in c...more
Like this review?   yes   (15 people liked it)
  6 comments

Amy
10/10/07
Amy added it

recommends it for: maroons
Read this in a couple of hours while I was babysitting. Not always a good sign; particularly when the reason I am looking for material is that the only other house options are natural health and yoga magazines, as I am a dedicated chainsmoker with terrible posture.

Some of the ideas patly blurbed on the back seemed compelling. Mary definitely wasn't a WASP, so that's interesting; beekeeping is fertile for extended metaphor; and tough runaway girlchildren are a favorite, chixploitatio...more
Like this review?   yes   (15 people liked it)
  7 comments

Elaine
06/24/07
Elaine rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: mainstreamlitfic
Read in June, 2007
A coming-to-age novel set in South Carolina at the height of desegregation. Lily is a lovable pre-teen who'd grown up believing she killed her mother (accidentally) and is trying to escape a brutal, abusive father. Filled with a cast of eccentric characters, Lily runs away with Rosaleen, a black servant, and finds herself in a beekeeper's sanctuary, where secrets come spilling out of the closet for a cymbal-clashing ending. Although rendered very close to the voice of a believable pre-teen, ...more
Like this review?   yes   (13 people liked it)
  7 comments

Sarah
05/10/07
Sarah rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2007
I'm picking this up again out of desperation. it's pretty bad. the pacing is terrible, the characterization is spotty, cliched, and rarely believeable, and there is so much shlocky dime-store 'wisdom' stuffed into the pages that it's a wonder anything ever actually happens, plot-wise. writing from the point of view of a child or adolescent is hard, and authors rarely get it right. this book certainly doesn't.

oh god, and the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter are so hit-...more
Like this review?   yes   (11 people liked it)
  add a comment

Kathaileen
11/03/07
Kathaileen rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: novels
Read in July, 2004
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (8 people liked it)
  add a comment

Jeffrey
06/21/08
Jeffrey rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: popular-fiction
I surveyed my class and 80% gave it two thumbs up: 5 stars. That's 28 out of 35 students. The rest of the class gave it an OK: 3 or 4 stars. So my giving it 5 stars has been backed by research into the general public's taste. ;=)

Now, I'm not much for spending time on fiction. I don't need entertainment, I need information. But as a story teller, occasional writing class instructor, I like to keep up with some of the new fiction.

Bees is pretty good. I don't get a sense o...more
Like this review?   yes   (8 people liked it)
  7 comments

Chai
01/17/08
Chai rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: i-own
Read in May, 2008
I actually liked this book. I only read the reviews afterwards and noticed that a lot of people complain of the stereotyping, and embarrassingly - I was so in love with the characters that it didn't phase me, I'm ashamed. I did notice that the 'blacks' were all painted as stereotypes but I figured that the author was just using a voice that kept with the times - back then, that's how everything was seen. But now I feel a little conflicted because god damn, I hate stereotypes and I'm usually the ...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  add a comment

Anna
02/01/08
Anna rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
recommended to Anna by: book club
It was ironic that I read most of this book on Mother's Day. At the core, this book isn't about race relations, the Virgin Mary, or even beekeeping, though those are all interesting parts of the story. It's a book about mothers. Mothers who are imperfect, mothers who make mistakes, and women who become mothers because they see people who need to be loved. I can't readily connect to most of those other topics, but everyone on the planet knows what it's like to have--or need--a mother in their...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  add a comment

Mayla
03/20/08
Mayla rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2008
The Secret Life Of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd

Penguin Group, 2003, $14.00, 336 pgs.
ISBN 9-78-014200-1

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” (Kidd 148). The Secret Life Of Bees allows us to discover more about creatures we think less of. Bees – what do they do? Disgusting and small, how complicated can things be for them? All they do is make honey and buz...more
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  7 comments

Adam
02/12/08
Adam rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  1 comment

Leah
12/02/07
Leah added it

Read in October, 2007
recommends it for: everyone!!!
Leah Gerber
Mrs. Ebarvia
Honors World Lit
11/26/07
Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees
What is more enjoyable than a good book? The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the best book I have read in a long time. Holding the reader’s interest is a key part of writing a good book and I could not put it down. Kidd has written many other novels such as The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and The Mermaid Chair. The story starts out with Lily Owens isolated on a farm, fo...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  add a comment

Hannah
09/24/07
Hannah rated it: 4 of 5 stars

recommends it for: Anyone
Reading the Secret Life of Bees is like meeting the best friend of your childhood within the confines of 302 pages of prose. Lily Owens is a 14-year-old girl who only wants a place to belong after running away from her miserable father with her black nursemaid Rosaleen. With nowhere else to go, Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three eccentric sisters: black beekeepers who hold the clues to Lily’s past, and quite possibly her future. Expertly set in 1964 in the heart of the American South, Li...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  add a comment

Rae  Walker
03/14/07
Rae Walker rated it: 3 of 5 stars

recommends it for: People Who Liked Number One Ladies Detective Agency
This was a harmless, heart warming book that did not change my life or enrich my thinking in any large way - except perhaps that I am slightly less afraid of bees. One thing that is a slight pet peeve with me is the healing power apparently inherent in the culture of the 'other'. Here is the formula: 1 caucasian person, hurt and broken by the world they live in, be it by family, work or environment + 1 minority culture (black or asian is fine) = that one caucasian person finding the true wonders...more
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  2 comments

Nikki
08/16/08
Nikki rated it: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorites. I didn't want to put it away and was sad when it was over.
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  add a comment

Sandi
10/02/08
Sandi rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008
Read in October, 2008
To me, the difference between is a good book and a great book is whether you have to suspend disbelief or whether you just believe. I became curious about “The Secret Life of Bees” when I saw the preview for the upcoming movie in the theater. It looked mildly interesting and overly sugary. You know, one of those feel good stories about people coming together despite racial differences. It’s been done a gazillion times and the stories are usually trite and maudlin. (I will say that the...more
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  2 comments

Lavinia
01/26/09
Lavinia rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2009, ebooks, fiction
Read in January, 2009
It's definitely not the breathtaking kind of book, incredibly written or with stunning narrative, but I enjoyed it anyway. It's got a little bit of everything: family drama, (de)segregation, friendship, romance, religion, beekeeping.

Highly recommended for girls half my age. I'm going to watch the film as well, since Dakota Fanning's acting in it, and Lily's character was absolutely charming.

***
later edit: you can skip the film :)
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  5 comments

Cortney
01/21/08
Cortney rated it: 5 of 5 stars

I am a sucker for beautiful prose and a story that fleshes out really wonderful characters and relationships. And can I just say it? Long live strong Southern women!
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  2 comments

Emily
10/16/08
Emily rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: borrowed-from-a-friend
Read in November, 2008
There are books you read along the way that take your breath away. This was definetly one of them for me. I truly connected with the main character Lily toward the end of the book. On page 278 was when my breath was taken, when tears sprang from my eyes, and I thought this could be me talking at 14 years old. It read .."I wished she'd been smart enough, or loving enough, to realize everybody has burdens that crush them, only they don't give up thier children. In a weird way I must have ...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments


« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7435 7436

What should our July book be?

 
  9 votes, 52.9%

 
  2 votes, 11.8%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  5 votes, 29.4%

 
  1 vote, 5.9%

2 comments Sign in to vote!
More...

recent status updates | recommend it | blog it

The Secret Life of Bees (Paperback)
Secret Life of Bees (Turtleback)
The Secret Life of Bees (Hardcover)
The Secret Life of Bees (Paperback)
The Secret Life of Bees (Penguin Essential Edition)







quotes from this book

"After you get stung, you can't get unstung how matter how much you whine about it." More quotes...


groups with this book

The Rory Gilmore Book Club
Books I Loathed
100+ Book Challenge
The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
Southern Belles and Beaus






The Mermaid Chair (Paperback) by Sue Monk Kidd
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (Paperback) by Sue Monk Kidd
When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Ques... by Sue Monk Kidd
Firstlight: The Early Inspirational Writings of Sue Monk Kidd (H... by Sue Monk Kidd
God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved (Paperback) by Sue Monk Kidd

More…