One of the huge benefits of moving to Scotland is that I’ve become more familiar with Scottish literature in general and writers like Lisa O’Donnell in particular. She was at the Edinburgh Book Festival my first year here and The Death of Bees was getting huge buzz (yeah, I know what i did there), but for some reason, it has taken me until now to read it. And it was brilliant.
I don’t normally quote from books on my blog, but here are the opening lines.
Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.
Is that great or what? And it is fairly emblematic of the rest of the novel. It is quick and to the point. No words are wasted. O’Donnell comes from a screenwriting background and I think it shows. Her dialogue was quick and revealing. She tells things as they are, without getting fancy about it.
The story is told from three perspectives and with three very different voices. There is Marnie, the protagonist who takes charge of the story. Nelly, her younger and fairly odd sister. Where Marnie is old beyond her years, Nelly remains frighteningly naive at times. And the old neighbor Lenny, who seeks to build a family of sorts out of ruins. There is nothing sentimental about any of the voices, and yet great feeling is shown.
Who would like this book? Do you like your humor dark? Because The Life of Bees is dark. It is hard to find things to laugh about when you’re telling the story of neglected children, druggies and dead parents, but O’Donnell does it really well. It is funnier than her second novel Closed Doors (review) and I think I liked The Life of Bees more. Both of O’Donnell’s books remind me of another young Scottish writer, Jenni Fagan and her book The Panopticon (review). Both authors tell stories that I would normally find rather depressing, but for some reason it works for them.
52 books or bust 
I have not actually heard of this book before. Thank you for sharing. I will check it out.
It’s quite dark, but a quick read.
Dark book…but I really liked it
Totally added this to my list because of your post! Very intrigued.
What Eva said. And, it worked for The Marrying of Chani Kaufman! 🙂
This one is much darker than Chani Kaufman. You have to be able to laugh at moving dead bodies etc.
Mostly, I just meant that I trust your judgment, but still good to know!
Those opening lines definitely make me want to pick up the book!
The best beginning to a book. You totally want to read more, right?
Dark humor? Yes please! I also really like imagining Scottish accents. I’ll be hunting this one down for sure!
I’m glad I read this review against my better judgement because I saw the cover and thought “Yeah, not my kind of book”. The opening line is fantastic and I’m putting it on my wishlist as we speak!
Yeah, it’s cover doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a gritty and funny read, but does have some rather touching points.
I don’t live in Scotland, but I’ve been promoting The Death of Bees all around the world last year. I loved this book! Closed doors is much more a standard, fine novel. But The Death of Bees is amazing. Glad you enjoyed it too.
It was so great. I can’t get it out of my head.
This is the second review I’ve read which shares those fantastic first lines and they definitely make me want to pick this up!
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I liked The Death of Bees a lot, but haven’t read anything else by the author. Yet!
I am curious about this one. The premise is kind of interesting. I’m not usually won over by dark humor because I usually find it very sad, still I’ll be looking forward to reading this.
There is one scene in which they try to move their dead father down some stairs that could be seen as rather disrespectful, but it was also pretty darn funny.
I could enjoy this in a certain mood. Usually, I go for much lighter material, but sometimes that doesn’t work so well. A bit of dark humor can be perfect, then.