He Should Have Told the Bees Book Review

"He Should Have Told the Bees" is the intriguing tale of two young women, Beckett Walsh and Callie Peterson. Beck is a beekeeper along side her father on their family farm. When we meet her at the beginning of the book, she has just suffered the loss of her father and is "informing" the bees, per her father's superstitious request. Beck suffers from agoraphobia since the disappearance of her mother, and her world is their apiary. Callie Peterson is a small business owner trying to expand her business while dealing with her childhood wounds from her alcoholic mother, who has now entered rehab yet again and listed Callie as the person to bear the financial burden. A letter summons both of them to a trust office to learn that Beck's dad has named them both co-trustees of the family farm, two women who have never met before but are somehow related. Beck's stable world is rocked by the news. Callie has an opportunity for a way out of the financial hardship her mother has placed upon her through selling the farm. Why would Beck's father do this? What secrets is Callie's mother hiding? What is the path forward for both of them?

The novel is a superb work of fiction. It deals with the hard issues of mental illness, alcoholism, childhood trauma, grief, and family issues in a way that is not burdensome to read but walks the reader gently through the complexity of recovery. Callie and Beck are awkward in their interactions as to be expected from two women with limited emotional connection to the outside world. Some reviewers have critiqued this as stilted. However, I found this to be surprisingly accurate for people dealing with enormous trust issues. The book adds layers of involvement through a delightful cast of supporting characters who gently work their way into the lives of these women. They are deliciously nuanced. They could easily have their own spin-off stories. The best part of this book is that it is such a great human story that ends not with a "happily ever after" but a "carefully moving forward." The characters are still flawed in the end, but they are healing and growing. Not to be forgotten, the bees play their own role in pointing these women forward in their journey.

Overall, this is one of the best novels I have read this year, and I do not give five stars easily. I received an advanced reader copy of the book as part of the Revell Reads blogger team in exchange for my honest opinion.