Sarah Crossan

"First published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Circus, August 2020"--Title page verso.

Here Is the Beehive

Mary Baldwin

I would never have picked this book for myself and am so grateful that it was chosen for me

After finishing a book I found frustratingly disappointing (The Atlas Six) I wanted to read something that felt different. This certainly did the trick.

'Here is the Beehive' has built the perfect harmony of storytelling, emotion and writing style. If either of the three were out of balance, it wouldn't work, and I think it's a real triumph that the author was able to use each to tell Ana's story.

When you first open the book, you will probably first notice the poetic layout. Ordinarily that would put me off, but once you start reading you realise that the words and sections flow like a stream of consciousness, and it's the perfect style.

One thing I am often critical of, is books with multiple perspectives or books which switch between moments in time without guiding you there. It's done effortlessly here and you're made to feel like you're appreciating what's happening in real time, each time.

Ana is married, and she's having an affair with a married man. They're caught in the cycle of loving each other; creating a world for just the two of them to exist in, but never moving fully in to that world. Both Ana and Connor have their beliefs about why that should, or shouldn't happen. Dealing with it is delayed. Until Connor dies in an accident.

Through Ana's processing of his death we learn more about their relationship, and its impact on Ana and her family. 

Ana has nothing to remind her of Connor, and out frustration that she didn't 'officially' exist in his world she seeks out a part of him that remains - his wife Rebecca.

I class this as an 'easy' read, but not because it's trivial or unsophisticated - it's easy because the style perfectly matches the story and the pages pretty much turn themselves.

I came close to giving this five stars, but given I haven't read enough similar books to make a comparison, it gets a strong four from me!

Alexa Jade

i’m crying ?????? Caitríona Balfe wtf.

Amy Grieve

She’s done it again! Just wow I enjoyed this so much. I’ve been casually making my way through Sarah Crossan’s work over the last few years and I’ve enjoyed everything she has given me. 

Here is the Beehive tells the story of a woman who finds out that her secret lover of three years has died in an unexpected accident and must pick up the pieces of her grief as she comes to terms with this loss alone. 

Adultery is not something I tend to read because I find that sometimes authors try to justify it. This book does no such thing. Instead it tells the story of a woman grieving alone, struggling to make sense of her relationship with the man who was always giving her just enough to stay and always made her come back to him in the end. It was an emotional gut punch reading how Connor kept Ana on strings through their entire relationship while he tried to defame his own wife at home to placate Ana’s need to feel special. 

What I took from this book is that when it comes to adultery there are no winners, just victims, sadness and unresolved grief.

'One of our most original writers. Sarah has almost created an entirely new form of writing in her novels that is hers and hers alone' John Boyne it happened, again and again and again and again and again. Together apart. In love in aching. Tangled unravelling. Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years. In hotel rooms and coffee shops, swiftly deleted texts and briefly snatched weekends, they have built a world with none but the two of them in it. But then the unimaginable happens, and Ana finds herself alone, trapped inside her secret. How can we lose someone the world never knew was ours? How do we grieve for something no one else can ever find out? In her desperate bid for answers, Ana seeks out the shadowy figure who has always stood just beyond her reach o Connor's wife Rebecca. Peeling away the layers of two overlapping marriages, Here is the Beehive is a devastating excavation of risk, obsession and loss.

Jen Estrella

How can we know which days
will be the turning points?

So long as we live,
we gamble.

This is the first novel written in verse that left me speechless and staring at a wall for quite some time (in a very good way). This book was so heartbreaking and so gloriously written. It reminds me a little of Normal People, because the characters were so unlikeable but they were also so vulnerable and painfully human. I really did not expect to feel Ana's pain and grief THIS much. 

  I want him to tell me that our love shattered you.
I want him to tell me that if you were alive
you would have picked me
eventually.
Ugh so awful but I can't help but feel her pain. I need more books that have writing as gorgeous as this and that have this much emotional impact. I will add more coherent thoughts, hopefully, once I have dealt with my emotions. Now I just have to figure out who to recommend this to...

Isabella Stocka

This book suprised me, because I wasn't prepared to be so beautifully written and intense. It was an easy read with a lot of different emotions which changed so fast through the pages.
It is a book, that gives you something to think, for sure. However, doesn't make right what has happened. On the other hand, who saya what wrong or right is.
Well, I definitely finished the book with mixed feelings.

Cynthia

zain

Megan O’Connod

'One of our most original writers. Sarah has almost created an entirely new form of writing in her novels that is hers and hers alone' John Boyne it happened, again and again and again and again and again. Together apart.In love in aching. Tangled unravelling.Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years. In hotel rooms and coffee shops, swiftly deleted texts and briefly snatched weekends, they have built a world with none but the two of them in it. But then the unimaginable happens, and Ana finds herself alone, trapped inside her secret. How can we lose someone the world never knew was ours? How do we grieve for something no one else can ever find out? In her desperate bid for answers, Ana seeks out the shadowy figure who has always stood just beyond her reach - Connor's wife Rebecca. Peeling away the layers of two overlapping marriages, Here is the Beehive is a devastating excavation of risk, obsession and loss.

Here Is the Beehive

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