Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars

“The Secret Life of Bees” is a cute novel that delves weakly into complicated social topics in order to give it a wanted depth that it never quite achieves. Strip that out and you’re left with an enjoyable read about a teenage girl trying to find herself and discovering power and acceptance in the hands of a cadre of strong, independent minded women. The book wanders into Magical Negro territory to do so, which is a shame, but it only mildly does so.

The book is set in South Carolina at the time of the Civil Rights Act being signed into law. And since the South has long since reconciled with their deep-seated racial hatred, everything in the book is daisies and daffodils. Ok, just kidding. There’s lots of racism. And unlike the racism we practice here in the North, there’s nothing subtle about it. I am of two minds about how Kidd portrays the racism in this book. There are two instances of verbally abused Black people enacting violence on the abusive White person. One is far-fetched, but at least used to push the narrative in a way that it wouldn’t be able to get to otherwise. The other is more believable, but doesn’t really add to the story in any way except to have another “racism bad” moment and to have a Black character turn hardened by the interaction when you know he’s had to have experienced much the same his entire young life. There are lots of missed opportunities to just talk about what happened, but then again, those who deal with racism on a daily basis mostly just have to endure it and not talk about it.

Mental health is also used more as a pointless plot point than an examination into the states of mental health. This one is especially a shame, because until the pointless plot point, it was a pretty effective look into both dealing with mental health issues and accepting people with mental health issues.

I guess I am being extra critical of the book because it is on many “must read” book lists and it really doesn’t belong there. It’s a good story and I enjoyed reading it, but I do not see how it’s any better than the hundreds of other good books I’ve read. I would definitely recommend reading it, especially from a female empowerment point of view, but I don’t think it’s going to be a book that alters anybody’s perceptions of the world. Unless, I guess, you didn’t realize that the South could be so openly racist.