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The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd (Goodreads Author)

4.06 · Rating details · 1,149,622 ratings · 31,204 reviews

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town th ...more

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Paperback, 302 pages

Published January 28th 2003 by Penguin Books (first published November 8th 2001)

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Mar 08, 2007 Kerry rated it really liked it

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 happened to have a lot of time on ...more

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May 29, 2007 Sammy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: a-the-best

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 comparison. T 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 comparison. There was romance, love, family, racial issues, religious experiences, and bees.

I have a feeling the title may deter a lot of people thinking that, oh, it's a book about bees! Well, there is a lot mentioned about bees, but it only helps enrich the story. With elements in the bees lives that tied in nicely with the lives of Lily Owens and the bee keeping sisters. All the characters are full and developed, except for the asshole racists in the very beginning of the book and somewhere in the middle, but even then real life racists aren't full and developed either. I'm sorry if you're a racist and you're reading this, but... well, fuck off. Mwa ha ha ha!

The only problem I had with this book was that I wished it was longer... but I think it was the perfect length. Nothing dragged out and nothing cut too short. Like little bears porridge, chair, and bed, it was perfect! I'm not surprised their making a movie out of it... I just hope that most people read the book before going to see it, because if they mess it up in the movie, that could deterr a lot of people from reading this wonderful book. And typically books are better than movies, because there's more and you have more freedom for thought. I also want them to cast me. *wink wink*

Sue Monk Kidd mentioned about possibly writing a sequel, possibly after she finishes writing her current work in progress The Mermaid Chair (which, if she continues writing like she did in this book, I will gobble up as soon as it comes out). I hope she doesn't write a sequel though, because The Secret Life of Bees can truely stand on it's own. And I'm sure as much as many people want to read more about Lily Owens and the Daughters of Mary, I think it will be hard for the second novel to live up to the expectations the first one made. This book may make it hard for Sue Monk Kidd... but if her writing continues to be as stellar as the writing in this book... she will have a fan base almost as big as J.K. Rowling. Potter-heads note the word almost. ...more

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Jul 11, 2007 Dolly rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: people who like Southern-flavored coming-of-age books and

Shelves: thought-provoking

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 writing is 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 writing is incredible. Voice, pacing, transition, and word choice are all stellar. On a micro level, Ms Kidd is magnificent. For instance, despite the predictability of telling such a tale from the young girl's point of view, I thought the decision worked here. Lily herself is absolutely charming. She is completely honest with the reader, often to her own detriment. If the story had been written from anyone else's point of view, Lily would have been pathetic: abused motherless little girl who harbors way too much guilt and angst. This book could have gone off the deep end real easy. But Lily is a survivor and an optimist, and her naive faith drives this book.

Mostly. As you might expect in a story of this sort, there was plenty of menstruation angst, boyfriend nervousness, junior cheerleader tryouts, and the requisite abusive father. All of these things were painful to read. However, something that made this book somewhat fresh was the strong theme of race. For a nice chunk of the book, Lily is on the lam with her black housekeeper Rosaleen, traipsing through 1960s South Carolina after busting Rosaleen out of jail for offending some white guys. I was struck with the parallels to Mark Twain, only here the adventure was overlaid -- sometimes heavy handedly -- with a female sensibility. Nice. In fact, all of the embedded feminism was well done. Recurrent natural images of moonlight and water were beautiful and deliciously pagan. The author went to a lot of trouble to create a new religion just for girls: part Catholicism, part goddess-centered paganism, part ancestor worship. The religious aspect was interesting, but not as compelling as the author wanted it to be. I could tell she was trying to impress me with the notion of Mary as a goddess protector. But I didn't buy it. Lily bought it, though, and that was enough to keep me reading.

The whole book was a quest for independence, I think. To find confidence and drive within, without always needing that crutch of others' acceptance. The book almost achieved that. But it gave in at the last, to deliver a happy ending.

Now that I think about it, much of the book was cliche. But it was also a good read. The strength of the narrative voice saved it, and it had some absolutely gut-twisting parts. The line beginning "She was all I ever wanted" .... both painful and breathtaking. ...more

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Nov 02, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Sue Monk Kidd - image from her FB pages

The Secret Life of Bees is a lovely tale. It tells of Lily, a South Carolina 14 year old. She lives, unhappily, with her crusty father T. Ray and Rosaleen, the woman who raised her after her mother died when Lily was 4. It is a coming of age tale set against the civil rights issues of the early 60’s. It is certainly no coincidence that Lily (as in white) spends most of the book in the company of earth-mother black people. Rosaleen attempts to register to vo ...more

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Nov 16, 2009 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 21th-century, historical, young-adult, adult

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd. Published: November 8th 2001.

The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl, Lily Melissa Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed.

She lives in a house with her abusive father, whom she refers to as T. Ray. They have a no-nonsense maid, Rosaleen, who acts as a surrogate mother for Lily.

The book opens with Lily's discove ...more

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Feb 01, 2008 Anna rated it really liked it

Recommended to Anna by: book club

Shelves: book-club-popular-fiction

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 liv ...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Jeffrey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 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 of the forced or trite he 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 of the forced or trite here like I do in a lot of fiction. In reading most fiction, I can almost hear the writer thinking. I guess it's because I write and my intimate knowledge of the craft allows me to see a lot before it comes. Kind of like an actor who you know is just acting. But Kidd's writing is like Will Smith in Ali or Jamie Fox in Ray. In Ali there is no Smith and in Ray there is no Fox. Art works best when it's done by the talented who tap into the moment so right, so purely it stops being art and becomes real. Bees is real.

Some readers on Goodreads and Amazon had trouble with such things as the bee quotes at the start of each chapter being a bit obvious, the religious theme (didn't state but I'm sure it has to do with the women eating cake as the body of Mary), the triteness of a coming of age story and some of the characterization (ie: stereotypical African / American women) and so forth, but I believe these are more personal problems than problems with the story. In the overall scheme of analysis, these issues were cosmetic, superficial at best. Most liked it: In my class. At Goodreads. On Amazon.

I find it humorous that many of the pseudo-reviewers / intellectuals (if I throw in some over priced words, I'm a big-time reviewer) love to sling review-speak but have no or little experience in hands-on experience: writing. Maybe it's writer-wanna-be frustration or other personal issues. There’s a lot to be said for freeing oneself of inhibiting characteristics / weaknesses and the success and release of open-mindedness. Nevertheless . . .

Bottom line, I was impressed and I've read a lot of stories and written many myself. I know the difficulties involved in making a story work, making is real, and connecting to readers. This book does all that and more. Highly recommended.

...more

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Mar 14, 2007 Rae Walker rated it liked it

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

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Mar 02, 2021 Ceecee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4+

I have no idea why I didn’t read this years ago so it’s a case of better late than never. The year is 1964, the place is South Carolina and President Johnson has just granted the Civil Rights Act which ‘tears things open further’. Lily Owens mother Deborah died when she was four, her ‘onery’ father T. Ray blames her and the only real affection she gets is from their maid Rosaleen. After an incident when Rosaleen goes to try to register to vote, the pair have to leave town quickly and head for 4+

I have no idea why I didn’t read this years ago so it’s a case of better late than never. The year is 1964, the place is South Carolina and President Johnson has just granted the Civil Rights Act which ‘tears things open further’. Lily Owens mother Deborah died when she was four, her ‘onery’ father T. Ray blames her and the only real affection she gets is from their maid Rosaleen. After an incident when Rosaleen goes to try to register to vote, the pair have to leave town quickly and head for Tiburon where they end up living with the Boatwright sisters who produce honey......

This is a beautifully written coming of age story in which eventually Lily finds both peace and love and equally importantly, a real home. I really like how central to the storytelling, apart from the magic of bees, is the power of women, not just the Boatwright sisters and Rosaleen but their friends in the Daughters of Mary. This links to another important theme of spirituality through the Black Madonna. August Boatwright is a wonderful character of great wisdom and patience as she shows Lily the way through her pain and loss. There are several instances where there is tension, in particular racial tension, with several characters experiencing horrific racist treatment which breaks your heart. The book captures the times extremely well as Lily realises the significance that some people attach to skin pigment. Lily’s relationship with her father is very difficult and although T.Ray is a horrible character she comes to appreciate that he has lost much too. This does not forgive him his appalling treatment of her or his lack of love. Lily is intriguing, she’s very complex, an accomplished liar who doesn’t know when to stop over egging the pudding but she is also creative, very brave and loyal to Rosaleen. The secret life of bees element produces some fabulous images and demonstrates what incredibly wise insects they are which August reflects on and demonstrates.

Overall, this is touching and emotional in places and tense and heartbreaking at others covering harsh issues but giving strong messages about love and it’s healing power.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline:Tinder Press for the copy in return for an honest review. ...more

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May 25, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it liked it

Is it ever not going to be problematic to have a book about a young white girl finding nurturing black mother figures in the South? It's not the book itself, necessarily, just the part where this is practically a genre unto itself, and I haven't run into any books (certainly not with the stature of this one) about the young girl in the South who is black, and her experiences. Also the part where the black women are mostly there to mother the young white girl, and all of their differences tend to Is it ever not going to be problematic to have a book about a young white girl finding nurturing black mother figures in the South? It's not the book itself, necessarily, just the part where this is practically a genre unto itself, and I haven't run into any books (certainly not with the stature of this one) about the young girl in the South who is black, and her experiences. Also the part where the black women are mostly there to mother the young white girl, and all of their differences tend to come down to eccentricities.

This is probably unduly harsh. The Secret Life of Bees is not a bad book - it's an easy read, it's a comfortable read, even in its portrayal of the impact of the Civil Rights movement on a small town that is interacting with it mostly through the media. It's just the overall impact of the stories authors are choosing to tell, that publishers are choosing to publish, and readers are choosing to read.

Does someone have something to recommend to me that breaks out of this mold?

Lily is the only daughter of an unloving white man. Her mother died when she was very little. She and Rosaleen, the black woman who raised her after her mother's death hit the road after an altercation between Rosaleen and the biggest racists in town. They find themselves in a small town in South Carolina, where they are both more or less adopted into the family of three black women, sisters, August, June, and May.

Lily struggles with how to tell the sisters who she really is and why she's there, as well as anger and guilt about her mother and father. Meanwhile, the sisters nurture. August takes care of the bees and takes Lily under her wing. June, a school teacher, refuses to marry the man she loves. May feels the horrors of the world far too sharply. Other black women come to their house for their own brand of syncretic worship, focusing around a statue of a Black Virgin Mary.

This book deals with some fairly difficult issues, so why do I categorize it as not particularly challenging? It deals with abuse, suicide, racism, and violence. None of those are easy topics. And yet, this book never reached out and grabbed me by the throat. It seemed to dance over these topics, not ignoring them, but not fully engaging with them either. It lacked anger, and some of these issues deserved some anger. (There were angry characters, but they were mediated by the nurturing aura of the book itself.)

I think part of the problem was that every time I picked it up, I kept pulling away from it, wondering why we so often seem to need this mediating figure of the young white woman in order to tell these stories. Wondering where the books about just August, and June, and May were. Or Rosaleen. Are they not being written? Or not published? Or am I just entirely oblivious to a bunch of books I should be reading?

Crossposted to Smorgasbook ...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it really liked it

Shelves: vagina-soliloquies

Read it. Enjoyed it. Any day now I expect to be entirely swallowed up by my own home-grown vagina.

If you've read The Help, you don't need to read this. One contemporary coming of age book about a white southern girl amongst black women discovering life in 1960s is plenty.

Sue Monk Kidd's explosively popular (I'm going to go out on a very sturdy limb and guess that this was an Oprah book) The Secret Life of Bees is a perfectly enjoyable read that any mother would love. Oh the imagery, the ambian ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gift-from-gr-friend, young-adult, own-read, debut, coming-of-age, historical-fiction

Fourteen year old Lily was so tired of her father yelling at her, forcing punishment on her almost daily, accusing her of things she didn’t do – so when Rosaleen, her nanny since her mother’s death when she was just four years old, was arrested and beaten by white men – with the police looking on - Lily decided enough was enough. The racial prejudice in South Carolina in the 1960s was oppressive and cruel – Lily couldn’t work out why skin colour made such a difference.

With no plan other than to ...more

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Jun 24, 2007 EPI rated it did not like it

Shelves: debut-novels

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, the ...more

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May 10, 2007 Red rated it did not like it

Shelves: historical, not-worth-the-time

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-you-over-the-head ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Brian rated it liked it · review of another edition

“Every little thing wants to be loved.”

Not sure what to say about this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I never had a desire to pick it up.
I read it. It was fine. I won’t read it again.
A big issue with “The Secret Life of Bees” is that it is emotionally manipulative. I do not mind that, but be good at manipulating me. This novel is excessively obvious about it.
However, the text has moments of nice insight and thought. Some examples:

“The problem is they know what matters, but they don’t choose it ...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended

I hesitantly picked up this book based upon numerous recommendations; frankly, the back of the book blurb just didn't sound like my sort of thing. Historical coming of age drama type stuff is just not me.

That said, however, Sue Monk Kidd completely made me change my tune. While this book isn't perfect, I was completely enchanted by the writing, the pacing, and the careful observation. As a Virginian well-versed in humid Southern summers and Southern cooking, I thought Kidd did a fantastic job o ...more

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Oct 10, 2007 A.K. added it

Recommends it for: maroons

Shelves: am-i-taking-crazy-pills, southern-us, womans-work, reviewed-by-yt

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, chixploitation or no. But ...more

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Oct 14, 2010 Maciek rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, read-in-2010, coming-of-age

The Secret Life of Bees is a cliched soap opera, the sort of book that would provoke rave responses at book clubs composed of mostly bored housewifes. It's a pretty formulaic tale of a young, southern girl whose daddy abuses her, so she decides to run away with her black servant and find solace in an unlikely place.

The story is a reversal of Huck Finn's tale, which results in a schmaltzy schlock. The novel is full of stereotypes - 99% of the white male figures are abusive bastards, the girl's fa The Secret Life of Bees is a cliched soap opera, the sort of book that would provoke rave responses at book clubs composed of mostly bored housewifes. It's a pretty formulaic tale of a young, southern girl whose daddy abuses her, so she decides to run away with her black servant and find solace in an unlikely place.

The story is a reversal of Huck Finn's tale, which results in a schmaltzy schlock. The novel is full of stereotypes - 99% of the white male figures are abusive bastards, the girl's father is an ogre with no redeeming features. As if to get back at all males, all women in this novel are presented as inherently good. There are about 8 mother figures in this book. This may be the reason why the novel is so popular with so many sunday feminist that scour the depths of the internet.

As the novel was written by a white woman, there portrayal of black people is as patronizing as possible. In TSLOB, black people are not people - they are accesories for the white folk to find their way. The author doesn't use any sort of vernacular or vocabulary that would suggest that a black person is speaking (after all, we are talking about the 60's south). We see black people as black only because of their neverending good actions. There are of course the obligatory magical negro figures, the beekeping sisters our heroine reaches early in the novel - they have nothing else to do but sport sage-like advice about the world, bees and honey.

Do you by any chances wonder about the premise? After all, Lily escapes to find the truth about her mother whom she most propably killed, as she remembers holding a gun and a BANG! If you're reading the novel to find out, you might as well give up - Lily's mother is killed off like Bambi's mom to start the story, which turns out to be a patronizing tale about racism. Well, the Civil Rights Movement is an important theme in the novel, and Sue Monk Kidd certainly forces the reader to wish good for these poor black women. However, she makes a mistake of toning down the racist hate - in her world, a group of teenagers of opposite sexes and races driving around the town is never noticed; in real world they would be immediately violently separated, she sent off home and he at best badly beaten. A female black servant responds strongly to three antagonizing white males and even spits on their shoes - such herocism works good in movies, but most propably would have ended less than well for the woman.. All racism comes from the white, of course; there is no single black person opposing to the white girl living with three black women and being in a relationship with a young black man. It works both ways, something which Sue Monk Kidd seems to have forgotten; she fondly remembers Marthin Luther King, but is fast to forget about Malcolm X.

Everything here is washed down; there is absolutely zero ambiguity. Black-good, White-bad. Lily escapes from her own father to be accepted without question by the black women; and in the end she won't care much about her own mother because she found new mother figures, all black of course. And her black boyfriend goes to enroll into a white school. Was that even possible back then? According to the author it was.
The white priest kicks the girl out of church because she led in a black servant, but don't worry about the religious future of the precious infant - there is a Black Madonna, and her black daughters who are more than willing to allow Lily join their club. Gah!

I can see how this book will provoke lots of discussion about its "Interesting topic" (There are classroom questions in my copy!) but it's just shallow, empty and overrated to the max. The story has been done several times and to a much better result - think Harper Lee and Mark Twain.
Steer clear of the "modern classic" - the bee isn't buzzworthy. ...more

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Jul 23, 2016 XxTainaxX Curvy and Nerdy rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed the story about a growing girl finding her way during a difficult time in history to the family she was always meant to have. The story is set during the early desegregation period in the US when hostility and resistance to change was the norm. Lily is trying to uncover her mother's past while dealing with some recent trouble with her caretaker Rosaleen. In her quest, she meets three sisters. August, the wise matriarch of the lot. June, the skeptical one. May, the sweet but trou ...more

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Mar 18, 2020 Ashley Daviau rated it it was amazing

I went into this book with no idea what it was about, I picked it up at the used bookstore ages ago because the title caught my attention and then it got shoved to the back of my shelf and forgotten. I’m so glad I finally read it because as soon as I opened this book I was instantly transported and felt like I fell into a magical realm. Now this isn’t a fantasy book at all but there’s no other way to describe it other than magical because that’s how it made me feel! It’s such a beautiful and tou ...more

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Mar 17, 2016 Charlotte May rated it really liked it

Shelves: tear-jerker, historical-fiction, favourites, sisters

"Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved."

I do love this book.
What starts off as a quiet story about a young girl in South Carolina, turns into a strong tale of race, prejudice, and finding love in the most unexpected places.
Lily Owens' mother died when she was 4 from an accident with a gun and Lily has always felt responsible. Her mothers death left her in the care of her abusive father who she calls T-ray and their housekeeper Rosaleen - Lily's only friend.
When r ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 ¸¸.•*¨*•♫ Mrs. Buttercup •*¨*•♫♪ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: public-library, 2020-favourites

“You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside”

This book simply has everything I love in a historical fiction book, plus, I mean, bees. Aren't they the most amazing, fascinating and incredibly complex animal? So strong and hard-working, but also surviving thanks to the most fragile balance - like women and mothers. Like them, they are fierce to attack who threatens them and their offspring; but are cap ...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Calista rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Healers and broken hearted people

Shelves: wordsmith, z-sue-monk-kidd, women, genre-spiritual, sub-bee, classic, favorite, genre-drama-tragedy, own, award-various

This is one of my favorite books ever. I love this book. I need to get a list together of my opinion best books. This would be on it. Sue is one of my must authors.

This book introduced me to Sue Monk Kidd's writing. I have all her books now, but Mermaid's Chair and don't need that one. I love her style, her writing and her last 2 books have been amazing. I read this in 2005 and it blew my mind wide opened.

I love the information given with beekeeping and I love how this life is used to help deal ...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Shayantani rated it did not like it

This book would be absolutely amazing, if there was anything ingenious about this book. It’s a story about Lily, a 14 year old in the racist American South. Sounds familiar? There is more. She is motherless, and is laden with guilt over having accidently killed her mother. Her father is evil. No really, like pure, unadulterated evil , with no redeeming qualities or anything. And, SURPRISE!!! He is abusive! And tortures Lily. Never saw that one coming!

Who was persistently screaming Cliché!!! a ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 tee rated it liked it

Shelves: i-own

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 African Americans 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 usu 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 African Americans 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 first to jump up-and-down and shake my fist.

I loved Lily, I have been struggling to actually like a protagonist in a novel for a long while, so was pleased when I took to Lily immediately. I think that it was a real honest, true voice of a fourteen year old, you could feel the wide-eyed wonder, the naivity and the angst without it being irritating. I loved how she grew and learned; gained courage and wisdom; without the morals of the story beating you over the head. I absolutely loved August and Rosaleen. To be honest, I loved them all. I was even rooting for Zach and Lily to hook up - it made me feel like a teenage reader again, in parts.

I loved the feminist undertones, these women were strong, capable and gutsy. I love the part where August explains why she never married. I loved how the women's spirituality was dealt with an off-beat 'religion' and even though I'm atheist - I still thought that the way that these women had made sense of the world, was empowering and beautiful. It was rather pagan; peaceful yet powerful. I found most of the book to be highly original and kept reading not only because of Kidd's great use of words, but because I really have not ever read anything like this before! I love unique.

I loved the storyline, I loved the beautiful prose. I think too, that I was so fascinated by this book because it is so far removed from my life and what I know of the world. Being Australian, reading about the South (from Kidd's perspective anyway, taking on board the fact that she stereotypes) was a page-turner for me. Some of the passages in the book were really quite stunning. Here's my favourite paragraph.

Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like evelator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long. ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Stephanie Nicholas rated it it was amazing

The use of simile and metaphor in this book, the author's voice, all of it was just astounding. So glad I read it! ...more

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Feb 11, 2019 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-books, 2019, classic, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, fiction, club-book-of-the-month

#########SPOILER ALERT############

5 Bee-utiful stars ⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️

"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about."

I read The Secret Life of Bees fifteen years ago and was pleased to reread it for a 'Real Live Book Club'. I enjoyed the beautiful descriptive and sometimes humorous writing about fourteen-year-old Lily Melissa Owens and Rosaleen, her fierce-hearted, black "stand-in mother".

"I'd never been inside a preacher's car before. It's not that I expected a ton of Bibles stacked on t ...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Florence (Lefty) MacIntosh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Lovers of southern charm and strong women

Shelves: awards, 2012, race, debut, reviewed, ya, lit-southern

4 ½ stars. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. Weird, lately that’s what I’ve been doing and it’s working... All the hype brought me to it; the cover and title hooked me. A great story chock full of symbolism, I suppose it’s like an adult Aesop’s fable featuring bees.
Timeline early sixties, place racially-charged South Carolina, it’s an inspirational and decidedly feminist book with an interesting touch of spiritualism. The courageous story of a young girl’s escape from a bitter and a ...more

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May 28, 2007 Leah rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

Though The Secret Life of Bees has the potential to be a heartwarming little novel, it falls flat on many accounts. The characters often feel unoriginal, including a sassy black nanny; a smart, yet under-valued girl who dreams of being a writer; and a roughneck southern farmer. While cliches exist because of a bit of truth in them, I found nothing truthful in the majority of these characters, whose actions,including the two main inciting incidents of the novel, seem completed unmovitated and out ...more

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Oct 14, 2020 Ankit Garg rated it it was amazing

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an epic tale of a fourteen-year old white girl who understands how meaningless racism is while she runs away from her abusive father and deals with the loss of her mother.

The narration is magnificent. The similes and metaphors used throughout the prose are interesting, and make for a beautiful read. A flurry of emotions came over me at various points in the story, and this, in my opinion, is the greatest compliment a writer strives for.

This is the book ...more

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About Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd

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SUE MONK KIDD was raised in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1970 and later took creative writing courses at Emory University, as well as studying at Sewanee, Bread Loaf, and other writers’ conferences. In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers ...more