TLC Book Tours
presents
THE DEATH OF BEES
by Lisa O'Donnell
If you ever wondered what a dysfunctional family was, read
THE DEATH OF BEES, and you will no longer be wondering.
Marnie and Nelly lived with their parents who were not married and who never paid attention to them. They were too busy being on drugs and selling drugs. The girls had to take care of themselves and were always left alone. Then one day they were truly alone...their parents went missing and never returned. The girls knew what happened to them, but they couldn't tell anyone. Their neighbor Lennie saw their parents had been gone for a long time and instinctively knew they wouldn't return so he stepped in to help. Lennie had issues of his own.
The book was somewhat disconnected and shared all the awful things that normally occur in a dysfunctional family. The author portrays scenes very vividly and leaves nothing to the imagination. She lets every detail of the family's life out in the open for all to see and does it cleverly by having each chapter's contents be the voice of one of the characters. I believe she was making the reader aware of how often this type of life happens more than we know and what many children live with on a daily basis. She was also showing that the cycle continues from generation to generation.
Marnie and Nelly lived with their parents who were not married and who never paid attention to them. They were too busy being on drugs and selling drugs. The girls had to take care of themselves and were always left alone. Then one day they were truly alone...their parents went missing and never returned. The girls knew what happened to them, but they couldn't tell anyone. Their neighbor Lennie saw their parents had been gone for a long time and instinctively knew they wouldn't return so he stepped in to help. Lennie had issues of his own.
The book was somewhat disconnected and shared all the awful things that normally occur in a dysfunctional family. The author portrays scenes very vividly and leaves nothing to the imagination. She lets every detail of the family's life out in the open for all to see and does it cleverly by having each chapter's contents be the voice of one of the characters. I believe she was making the reader aware of how often this type of life happens more than we know and what many children live with on a daily basis. She was also showing that the cycle continues from generation to generation.
Despite the author's attempt of trying to enlighten what we as a civil society do not want to face, this book definitely would not be good for young adults. There is a lot of vulgarity, sexual situations, drug situations, tension between parent and child, and even murder. On a positive note, it does touch on strong friendships. If this book were being rated as a movie, I would give it an R rating.
It did get a little more interesting as the book continued, and there were some funny parts. You can't help laughing at the absurdity and utter unbelievability of some of the circumstances, but the book's disconnection with following the plot, the vulgarity, and the unpleasant, but informative topic makes me give the book a 3/5.
This book was given to me free of
charge without compensation in exchange for an honest review.
9 comments:
Thank youfor a review on an interesting story.
Thank you TLC tours for hosting this tour.
And...thank you to everyone who stops by.
Sounds interesting.. I will have to look into
Maybe the disconnect was supposed to reflect the family's dysfunction? Sorry you didn't love this one.
Thanks for your review Elizabeth. Appreciate the time you took to read it :)
If not for the vulgarity and sexual situations, I'd want to read this book. It does sound really good except for those things.
I do think dysfunctional families are more common than not, unfortunately. And while this book certainly took a dysfunctional family to the extreme, there's so many kids left to fend for themselves, either literally or emotionally.
Thanks for being on the tour!
Thanks for including content in your review. I appreciate this information. I have read several reviews of this book and none mentioned it. I think I will skip this title.
Thanks for such an honest review. This one sounds interesting but I appreciate the heads up on the "R" rating.
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