Honeybee by Craig Silvey

I finished 4 books in January.  My review of Memorial Drive is the blog post before this.  Then I read Weather by Jenny Offill, Honeybee by Craig Silvey and Nobody Will Tell you this but Me by Bess Kalb.  All very different books.

Today I will review Honeybee by Craig Silvey.

Craig is an Australian writer based in Western Australia.  He is probably most famous for his novel Jasper Jones.  I confess to not having read Jasper Jones but I did see the movie.  Does that count?  I can highly recommend it.  It was directed by Rachel Perkins and has a to-die-for cast including Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Dan Wyllie, and Susan Prior.  

I was very slow to read Honeybee. Everybody else seemed to read it waaaay before I did.  I was lucky to borrow it from the Ipswich Library service and they had plenty of copies to borrow at their wonderful Karalee Book Pod.

The subject matter didn't feel very original to me at the beginning.  I kept thinking to myself "Oh this is a bit of Julie and Julia or Animal Kingdom.  But I persevered and slowly the characters started to grab hold of me.  More importantly, I began to worry for Sam.  There is a wide range of characters in this story from drug addicts to bullies, to drag queens and Vietnam Vets.  Craig did a great job of making them all believable.  In particular, I loved Sam's friend Aggie's character to bits; so unique and funny as well as being heartbreakingly honest and a real friend.  

Going back through the book I am surprised how quickly the story unfolds (much quicker than I remember). The best bit about the book was that you weren't told why Sam was called Honeybee until the very end.  I loved that.

I gave Honeybee 4/5 stars and mostly because Craig captured the kind of ghastly conversations someone has with a bully.  They were so gut-wrenching for me to read.  Let me give you an example:

"The fuck are you doing?"

'Nothing'

I tried to close the door, but he blocked me.

"The fuck is this?"

'Nothing.'

"Doesn't fucking look like nothing.'

He stepped inside and I backed away.

'It's nothing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.'

He pushed me hard. I fell back.  He closed the door behind him. Then he picked up the iPad.

'Who's this? What are you, a faggot?"

I shook my head.

Steve snapped the iPad in half and threw it aside.

"You're not a faggot?'

'No"

'Then what are you?'

"Nothing.'

"You're nothing?"

'Yes. No."

And so on.  You get the picture.  Pretty harrowing stuff to read.    

But it's not all doom and gloom.  Sam thankfully meets some wonderful people who give them just the support they need to discover who they are, grow strong and be at ease with their identity.

So in summary, the plot is compelling and I think Craig deal with the issues sympathetically but without pulling any punches.  

Yes, I would recommend this book to others but it's not for everyone and comes with a language warning and flags for issues like suicide and gender-identity.