A Review Of The Secret Life Of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees is a best selling novel by author Sue Monk Kidd. This article is going to take a look at The Secret Life of Bees and give you a basic plot summary and review.
The Secret Life of Bees - Summary and Review
The book opens in South Carolina in the mid 60s. Our story revolves around Lily Ownes. Her mother was killed and she is abused by her father on a daily basis. Lily does not remember much about her Mom and when she asks her Dad about it he leads her to believe that it was her fault she died.
T. Ray - here dad - often mistreats he by making her kneel on dry grits for hours at a time. In the beginning of the book Rosaleen, Lily's nanny, is arrested for pouring snuff juice on the shoes of three racist men after a verbal assault. Rosaleen is then beaten in her cell and hospitalized. In addition to that T. Ray tells Lily that day that her mother never loved her and in fact left her behind when she was little.
Distraught Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of jail and head to Tiburon, South Carolina. This is the only place she knows that her mother may have lived and wants to go there to find out as much as she can.
When she gets to Tiburon Lily spots a black lady on a jar of honey and goes to the beekeepers house. Lily then becomes an apprentice beekeeper under the watch of August. During this period Lily goes through a lot because she wants to know about her mom, but does not want to rock the boat.
While working as an assistant with August Lily meets Zach Taylor. Zach gets arrested for throwing a bottle at a racist. May, when of the sisters that Lily is staying with, becomes so distraught over this that she kills herself.
In the end Lily does end up asking about her Mom and finds out the most of what her Dad told her was true, but while the facts are correct her Mom's reasoning behind her actions is not told truthfully by her father.
After this her father learns of her whereabouts and confronts her. Her and her dad fight, but eventually he sees the light and decides that her staying with the beekeepers is probably for the best.
Overall The Secret Life of Bees a decent book. I found it to be a bit sappy for my tastes, but if you like that kind of stuff than this one is for you. Overall I give The Secret Life of Bees three and a half out of five stars.
