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The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37435.The_Secret_Life_of_Bees?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Secret Life of Bees" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1168915404m/37435.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37435.The_Secret_Life_of_Bees?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Secret Life of Bees</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4711.Sue_Monk_Kidd">Sue Monk Kidd</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9854569?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 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, forced to sell peaches for her abusive father. Her black housemaid Rosaleen is her only escape from the hell she calls home. Then, a series of events pushes her to the limit. Rosaleen gets beaten up and put in jail, and when her father, known as T-Ray, tells Lily that she accidentally killed her mother, and that her mother never loved her, it is the last straw. Becoming a fugitive from the law and breaking Rosaleen out of jail, she runs away to Tiburon, South Carolina. Using a picture of a black Mary as a clue, she finds a family that knew her mother. Creating a web of lies, Lily assumes a false identity and stays with the colored Boatwright family to discover about her past and what really happened to her mother. 
 	The Secret Life of Bees was so incredible I have but one negative point; the ending was extraordinarily weak. It was exciting until the book actually ended. The father comes to get his daughter, putting you in suspense, but then the T-Ray just gives up and leaves. For such an inspiring story it seemed as though Kidd had given up, and just didn’t care about how the story ended, almost as if she put a little bit of herself in T-Ray’s character. 	
 The novel is amazingly well written, and once the book was over, I was begging for more. What I loved about it was how I had never seen this plot before. The way Kidd presents the story keeps you from knowing things that the characters do-at least until the point when she reveals it-which I liked because it is different. Most authors use dramatic irony, but this is the opposite. Another point that appealed to me was how you could feel the character growing each and every day. The way she intertwined racial problems with an unlikely family without making it depressing was brilliant. She shined a light on a whole new dimension to the topic. 
 I think Sue Monk Kidd could have changed the ending. It was very exciting until ‘she lived happily ever after’. Anyone can write that, but what makes this novel unique is that Kidd and Lily are not anyone-they are someone. Even with this minor flaw, this may be the all time greatest novel I have ever read. With each character so unmatched and important, every person can find them self somewhere in this enlightening and heartwarming story. It will make you laugh, cry, and long for your family. I cannot think of someone who would not like this book, so I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. “You gotta imagine what’s never been.” And Kidd did just that. She created a modern novel that can be read again and again. 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/655033?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Leah's review
recommended 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, forced to sell peaches for her abusive father. Her black housemaid Rosaleen is her only escape from the hell she calls home. Then, a series of events pushes her to the limit. Rosaleen gets beaten up and put in jail, and when her father, known as T-Ray, tells Lily that she accidentally killed her mother, and that her mother never loved her, it is the last straw. Becoming a fugitive from the law and breaking Rosaleen out of jail, she runs away to Tiburon, South Carolina. Using a picture of a black Mary as a clue, she f...more 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, forced to sell peaches for her abusive father. Her black housemaid Rosaleen is her only escape from the hell she calls home. Then, a series of events pushes her to the limit. Rosaleen gets beaten up and put in jail, and when her father, known as T-Ray, tells Lily that she accidentally killed her mother, and that her mother never loved her, it is the last straw. Becoming a fugitive from the law and breaking Rosaleen out of jail, she runs away to Tiburon, South Carolina. Using a picture of a black Mary as a clue, she finds a family that knew her mother. Creating a web of lies, Lily assumes a false identity and stays with the colored Boatwright family to discover about her past and what really happened to her mother.
The Secret Life of Bees was so incredible I have but one negative point; the ending was extraordinarily weak. It was exciting until the book actually ended. The father comes to get his daughter, putting you in suspense, but then the T-Ray just gives up and leaves. For such an inspiring story it seemed as though Kidd had given up, and just didn’t care about how the story ended, almost as if she put a little bit of herself in T-Ray’s character.
The novel is amazingly well written, and once the book was over, I was begging for more. What I loved about it was how I had never seen this plot before. The way Kidd presents the story keeps you from knowing things that the characters do-at least until the point when she reveals it-which I liked because it is different. Most authors use dramatic irony, but this is the opposite. Another point that appealed to me was how you could feel the character growing each and every day. The way she intertwined racial problems with an unlikely family without making it depressing was brilliant. She shined a light on a whole new dimension to the topic.
I think Sue Monk Kidd could have changed the ending. It was very exciting until ‘she lived happily ever after’. Anyone can write that, but what makes this novel unique is that Kidd and Lily are not anyone-they are someone. Even with this minor flaw, this may be the all time greatest novel I have ever read. With each character so unmatched and important, every person can find them self somewhere in this enlightening and heartwarming story. It will make you laugh, cry, and long for your family. I cannot think of someone who would not like this book, so I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. “You gotta imagine what’s never been.” And Kidd did just that. She created a modern novel that can be read again and again.
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