Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossnan

There is a certain art to novels which are written in verse instead of the usual prose; dare I say there is almost a poetic nature to them (pun fully intended). Here is the Beehive was one of those books that was all over Instagram, and from reading the blurb I knew that I would be interested in it – I do enjoy a troubling domestic fiction tale, and quite enjoyed the TV show The Affair (which I need to finish if it’s still on Netflix). But back to the book.

Together / apart.

In love / in aching.

When I first saw this book I wasn’t aware of how it was written. I thought it was one of those ordinary novels tackling a tricky topic. But, after a small spoiler that I stumbled upon during a perusal of the ‘gram, I saw that it was not that. It didn’t deter me from reading the book by Crossnan, but in a way, I would like to have seen this tale further developed into prose, where the characters could be further developed and the story line further delved into. I think this is the element that stopped me from giving the text a full five stars. There was a good amount of detail but there is more that I would have liked to know and experience with the characters.

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

These experiences that are undergone are not amiss. There is plenty of detail that is threaded through the verses and pages. All in all, this is a telling tale. It is emotional on several levels, there is love between people and between these same characters there is also loss. There are ties formed and broken, deceit and deception, but also a familiarity to that which transpires in the mind of the protagonist. With limited amounts of text, the readers are still presented with immense levels of detail, the words and thoughts of the characters drifting from the pages.

If you are ever stuck in a rut with what to read, this is a great text to pick up. As it’s not your standard novel in prose, it reads relatively quickly with not a lot of information thrown at you all at once, but at a pace that is natural to the length and development of the story. Definitely worth a read at any point of the year, and at any time in life.