Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.
Lily Owens runs away from home in search of answers about her mother, and ends up in the bright pink house with the three Boatwright sisters who teach her about kindness, love, bees, her mother, and the world. In a summer filled with bees, laughter, and heartbreaking loss, Lily learns what it's like to be free, and to be loved.
I love The Secret Life of Bees - book AND movie - and I can't believe it's taken me this long to re-read the book. I love August, June, and May and wish I knew women like them in real life, which is one of the signs of a well written novel. If the characters seem so real and perfect you want to meet them, then it's good. The story wraps you up so well in the world of Tiburon that it flies by even though the story is relatively slow-paced and easy.
While there are important issues addressed - racism, for one - I like how the pink house feels like a refuge from these things. People are people at the Boatwright home, and there is so much love to go around. It's a beautiful setting and a book filled with beautiful people and I love it.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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19 March, 2019:
Finished reading
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19 March, 2019:
Reviewed
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Started reading
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Finished reading
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19 March, 2019:
Reviewed