The Secret Life of Bees
By: Sue Monk Kidd
Reviewed by: Alexandra Harris
By: Sue Monk Kidd
Reviewed by: Alexandra Harris
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a well-written book that was recently turned into a movie. I would recommend this book to girls 12 years and older. I wouldn’t suggest that you read this book if you don’t fit this category, only because I don’t think it would be as interesting, and it would be very hard to relate to the plotline about love, and the importance of “family.” The Secret Life of Bees also shows that race doesn’t matter when it comes to love, family, and friends. This historical-fictional novel takes place in South Carolina in the summer of 1964, during the civil rights movement.
The main character, Lily, a girl from Sylvan, South Carolina, sets out on a journey where she finds herself moving out of her house at the age of 14. She breaks her stubborn, loving nanny, Rosaleen, out of jail, and looks for the history about her long-gone, mysterious mother who she accidentally killed when she was a toddler.
Even though this novel may be slow or even boring at times, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was extremely well written, and the morals in the book made it interesting. A few of the morals that are presented in this book are: to love people no matter what their race, to stand up for your own rights, and to have moral courage. These morals are shown when Lily finds herself in the middle of a family full of colored people, when the world around her is full of racism.
In the book, Lily starts out looking for the background on her mother so that she knows she was loved. She uses the few remaining items that her mother left behind to find out more about her, and they set her on a journey to figure out even more about herself and her own new family. We can all relate to Lily and the love that, as she finds out, is everywhere.
Even though The Secret Life of Bees was well-written, had a heartwarming storyline, and was easily relatable to some people, I wouldn’t recommend this book to you if you’re interested in action packed books, mystery books, adventure books, or fantasy books because it’s a realistic fiction novel. I enjoyed it because the main character is easily relatable to me, however, you may find this love-filled novel too slow-moving or un-relatable. Overall, I think that Sue Monk Kidd did a great job at writing this interesting plotline about a girl who is desperately seeking motherly-love. I wouldn’t recommend that everyone reads it, but if you’re interested in this beautiful plotline about love, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out what she discovers about her new family full of friends and herself.
