Mad Honey

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Fiction

2022 Ballantine Books

Finished on November 10, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Publisher's Blurb:

A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Once again, Jodi Picoult has written a compelling and thought-provoking novel (really more of a mystery than general fiction) that grabbed me from the first page and never let go. I went into Mad Honey completely cold, not even tempted to read the publisher's blurb, confident that a book by Picoult is almost guaranteed to be a winner. I was a little hesitant to read a co-written work, but then I remembered that the Monkeewrench series was written by a mother-daughter writing duo (P.J. Tracy), and I loved those books. Picoult and Boylan have created a seamless story, never once did I feel jolted out of the narrative, their two voices blending into one. Unaware of the central theme of the story, I gasped out loud when the main secret was revealed. I knocked off half a point due to some of the teenage angst in Lily's chapters, pushing the story toward the YA genre, of which I'm not a huge fan. I also guessed the final outcome early on, but that didn't spoil my reading experience, and I'm eager to discuss the book with others. I plan to nominate it to my book group for our 2024 calendar. Fans of Defending Jacob will enjoy this dramatic story. Highly recommend!