Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

464 Pages

Published October 2022 by Random House Publishing Group

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley

Publisher's Summary: 

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can trust him completely. . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in Ash, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

My Thoughts: 

Here's what I wrote about Picoult's writing when I first reviewed one of her books in 2019: 

"Confession: I have never read a Jodi Picoult book before. Picoult has written 23 novels and I have never read a single one of them. And why is that, you may ask? They don't fall in any of the genres I tend to steer away from. They are books written to make readers think and we all know how much I like that in a book. Here's why: they are "issue" books. It's been my impression that Picoult's books are very much like the latest episode of Law and Order, story lines that are ripped from the headlines. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with books addressing current issues. I just don't want it to feel like the writer is churning out books with no other intent other than to write about that issue. . NPR even did a segment about the way Picoult turns "tough topics into best-sellers." In that segment, NPR suggested that Picoult writes what might be called "ethical or moral fiction." I like that a lot better. They also pointed out that Picoult's novels tend to be written around families. Which brought me back to feeling like they might be formulaic."

That book was A Spark of Light and I have gone on to read one of Picoult's books every year since then. Are they all "issue" books? Yes. And yes, she does write a new book nearly every year, an astonishing rate most authors can't begin to touch. Of course, if you're going to write a book about a current issue, you need to get the book into the hands of readers while the topic is on readers' minds. Are they formulaic? Only in so far as you know, when you pick up one of Picoult's books, that she's going to tackle not just one, but two or more hot button topics. 

This book is written by both Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, who willed the book into existence when she had a dream that she and Picoult had written a book together. When she tweeted about it, Picoult shot back that it was a great idea. So the collaboration was born, each writer taking one of the two voices the story is told through; one writing Olivia's story in the present and the other writing Lily's story from the past moving up to Lily's death. They edited each other's work and each took one turn at the other voice. The result is a book written by two people which only feels like it was written by two people because the two voices are so distinct, as they should be, given the characters. 

Both writers have a lot to say about the issues the book tackles and, as Picoult has, it's now been my experience, always does, it makes readers really think. Honestly, I learned a lot from this book that I will take forward with me when I have conversations with other people about some of the issues. And it became timely almost immediately when I turned on the news the night after I finished and watched a television show that covered the same topic the very next night. 

But the book can get a little long-winded and repetitive at times and there is a ton of backstory here that might have been left out and not missed. Disbelief needs to be suspended at times, to make the book work (Asher doesn't have a single person, other than his mother, who has begun to have her doubts, to be a reliable character witness?). But, as a mom (and a woman) I was willing to overlook those issues to get to the meat of what these writers had to say. And that the mark of a book that works for me.