Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Publisher: Penguin Books 2003

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - Top 100 YA, 21st Century Women Authors, Rory Gilmore; Goodreads Random

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 that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sister, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

A really beautiful coming-of-age story set in a fraught time period and place. I was rooting for Lily to find her place int he world away from her father and the ignorant perspectives of many in her community. I loved meeting the sisters and learning about beekeeping and their particular brand of religion. Many of the sequences feel very dreamlike. Almost like the opening scenes of Lily watching the bees swarm in her room. My only quibble with the book is the format. At times, the constant flashbacks muddled the prose. Transitions were not the best. Overall this was a lovely atmospheric book.

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