Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees
kaberle avatar reviewed on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


I really loved this book, so much so that I rented the movie to watch it. The book was filled with more raw emotion than the movie. But it was also filled with pain, love and redemption.

Written in the first person by a 14 yr old girl named Lily Owens.Set in 1964 in South Carolina, Lily writes about her life which has been shaped by the blurred memory of the day her mother was killed.

Lily's caretaker, the fierce-hearted Roseleen, insults the three worst racists in town and gets beaten and jailed, Lily sets them both free and they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina- a town that holds the secret to her mother's past.

Taken in by three eccentric, educated, beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced into the mesmerizing world of bees, honey and the Black Madonna.

This is a story about divine female power and love. A worthy read and worthy to hand down to your daughter. I am.