Ava Campanello and Olivia McAfee have come to Adams, New Hampshire, for a fresh start. Both desperately attempting to conceal secrets from their past. When Olivia’s son, Asher, meets the new girl in school, Ava’s daughter, Lily, sparks fly. A teenage love affair begins. Both Lily and Asher are the happiest they have ever been, but the secrets they keep causes fractures in the relationship. One afternoon when Asher doesn’t return home from school, Olivia gets a call. Lily has been found dead and Asher is being held for questioning. A sleepy town where crime is almost non-existent will now bear witness to a first-degree murder trial and the purposefully kept private lives of two broken families will be unearthed.
The novel follows the indestructible love between mother and child and has twists and turns that are mostly impossible to predict. Although the ending did disappoint a little, with a sudden reveal that I found predictable.
While jumping between different storylines, the authors build highly developed characters and intriguing narratives that made it difficult to put the book down. The authors tackle major social issues carefully and tastefully, and their commentary on domestic violence, teen suicide and LGBTQI+ rights offer an interesting perspective.
Mad Honey is a very readable, well-researched story from two skilful authors that will stay with you well after you have turned the last page.
Reviewed by Kayla Sawyer
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What’s on Jodi Picoult’s Bookshelf
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JODI PICOULT
JENNIFER FINLAY BOYLAN
Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 novels, including Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper. With her daughter Samantha van Leer they wrote two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Jodi 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.
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