Audiobook Review - Here Is The Beehive

Another audiobook and a short one at that! And I know I am doing the Reindeer Readathon, this isn’t going to fill one of the prompts. I really tried to figure out which prompt would work for it, but nothing does. And I’m ok with that - like I said at the start of the month, I will try and do the Reindeer Readathon, but I’m planning to flexible with my reading/audiobooking. And seeing as I have a week of blogging before I go on a Christmas/New Year blog break, I want to go silly/hardcore with my reading/blogging. Sorry in advance for the weirdness to come! 

Title And Author: Here Is The Beehive by Sarah Crossan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus

Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/write-up

Length: 288 Pages or 3 Hours 55 Minutes

Ana is sitting in her lawyer’s office when she gets a phone call from Rebecca, saying her husband has died. But when Ana hear’s the name of Rebecca’s husband - Connor, it throws her into a spiral. Rebecca’s husband is the man Ana’s been having an affair with for the past three years.

Now Ana’s finds herself alone, trapped inside her secret grief and her life, her marriage, her relationships with her family and friends, are spiralling out of her control. How can she grieve for the man she loved, the end of her secret relationship, if the world knew nothing about it?

Before I go further, I want to point out two things out. The first is that this is written in free verse (in the same style as Sarah’s previous novel, One, which is fabulous and I highly recommend [link for my review for One is here]) so it’s not going to be a linear as other novels (and I was intrigued on how free-verse will translate onto audiobook). The second is I asked to review this audiobook was the cover. Doesn’t look like lovely?

Now, Sarah’s writing is wonderful. It lives up to One. And Sarah narrates the audiobook, which gives an extra layer. She knows the rhythm and beats, and this comes across.

And yet… There are things that just don’t work.

Maybe it would have been better if I have read this, but from some of the reviews I’ve read, maybe not. The book has duel timeline - Ana grieving for Connor’s death and how it’s affect her/everyone around her, then her and Connor meeting of the affair throughout the year - and yet there is no real transitions between the two. It’s quite jarring at times. 

But the main thing I have issue with is the characters, mainly Ana and Connor. I’m sorry, but I felt no sympathy towards them. In fact, I came away from this quite angry with them both. I understand that we come into the story at the end of the affair and in Ana’s grief, but I found Ana truly unlikeable: self-centred, selfish, horrid to people around her (her husband, her friends, her mother, her sister, her children). Connor was exactly the same, but he felt more pathetic and weak-willed, wanting his cake and eating it, wanting Ana but not willing to leave Rebecca. This affair is toxic and quite harmful to themselves and people around them, and Ana’s grief turns almost obsessive as she compares herself to the mythical Rebecca before meeting her and trying to become her friend (I see you, Daphne de Maurier).

While Sarah’s writing and reading is beautiful, the characters and what this story wanted to do just didn’t work for me. For someone else, this will hit that sweet-spot perfectly, but not for me, I’m afraid. I’ll stick with One.