Mad Honey

by Jodi Picoult (Author)

Reading Level: 9th − 12th Grade

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Alternatingly heart-pounding and heartbreaking. This collaboration between two best-selling authors seamlessly weaves together Olivia and Lily's journeys, creating a provocative exploration of the strength that love and acceptance require."--The Washington Post

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - PEOPLE'S BOOK OF THE WEEK - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life--living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher--was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that 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 she wonders if she can 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 Ash, 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.

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Kirkus

A well-paced story that highlights several timely issues, with a stimulating courtroom trial that makes it worth reading.

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
Gripping . . . This timely and absorbing read will make readers glad these two powerful writers decided to collaborate.

Publishers Weekly

Picoult (Wish You Were Here) joins forces with novelist and transgender activist Boylan (Long Black Veil) for a spellbinding yarn involving a teen's trial for murder. Beekeeper Olivia McAfee fled her abusive husband in Boston for New Hampshire with her six-year-old son, Asher. Twelve years later, Asher is charged with murdering his high school girlfriend, Lily, a newcomer to town. The story unfolds from Olivia and Lily's viewpoints (Lily's before the murder), and centers on the budding relationship between Asher and Lily and the subsequent court case against Asher, who is represented by Olivia's older brother, Jordan, a high-profile defense attorney who has appeared in previous Picoult novels. Both teens have troubled relationships with their fathers, and the authors painstakingly explore the impact of physically and emotionally abusive men on their families. After a big reveal in the second half, the canvas stretches to include a primer on transgender issues, and the shift is mostly seamless though sometimes didactic. More successful is the atmospheric texture provided with depictions of Olivia harvesting honey and the art of beekeeping, and the riveting trial drama. Overall, it's a fruitful collaboration. (Oct.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Praise for Mad Honey

"Compelling . . . A well-paced story that highlights several timely issues, with a stimulating courtroom trial that makes it worth reading."—Kirkus Reviews

"A spellbinding yarn . . . atmospheric . . . riveting . . . Overall, it's a fruitful collaboration."—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Jodi Picoult

"Picoult is a skilled wordsmith, and she beautifully creates situations that not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us."—The Boston Globe

"Jodi Picoult is that rare, one-in-a-million writer whose books both squeeze your heart and expand your mind."⁠—Emily Henry

Praise for Jennifer Finney Boylan

"Jennifer Finney Boylan is an exquisite writer."—Augusten Burroughs

"One could not ask for a wiser, warmer, more engaging companion than Jennifer Finney Boylan."—Mary Roach
Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister's Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.

Jennifer Finney Boylan is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books. She is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University and a 2022-2023 Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. A nationally known advocate for human rights, she is a trustee of PEN America. For many years she was the national co-chair of GLAAD as well as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean, and a daughter, Zai.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781984818386
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Ballantine Books
Publication date
October 04, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
FIC019000 - Fiction | Literary
FIC044000 - Fiction | Women
FIC008000 - Fiction | Sagas
Library of Congress categories
Mothers and sons
Trials (Murder)
Domestic fiction
New Hampshire
Family violence
Bee culture
Novels
Divorced women

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