Reviews

The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon

carabones's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

pablopicostco's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

cornmaven's review against another edition

3.0

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for providing an ARC for me to read prior to publication. This was an interesting collection of short stories, with varied themes about family and fitting in. I enjoyed some more than others, which is typical for a short story collection.

I do think I missed some key points the author was looking to make because I am not that well versed in the cultures that were presented in the stories. A lost in translation effect as well. But overall, I liked it.

olamroczek's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.5

boundye's review

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

fern17's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.0

blueridgebookworm's review

4.0

Bonner’s book club #4 - “I have spent my life building rooms in my mind to step in or to never step in and it is as if I have built all the rooms wrong.”

othersociologist's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty and War

tlindhorst's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is book of short stories about the Korean diaspora. Stretching from the Edo period in Japan to a Russian island today, Yoon weaves history through out these tantalizing fragments of stories. This is a book in which the reader’s reflection will reveal more and more.  An undercurrent of loneliness, isolation and trauma haunts these stories. 

Having read other reviews, I want to add that I enjoyed the fragmentary style that left mystery after mystery unresolved in these stories.  In my own reflections on  what the  author may have been trying to communicate, I saw the structure of these stories as a mirror of the dislocation and loss of cohesion that comes about through forced migration, war, trauma. This is not a collection for people looking for an uplifting read or stories that have a clear and unified arc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

dembury's review

2.0

Objectively I can acknowledge the historical hauntedness that runs through these stories and appreciate the exploration of the Korean diaspora, but at the same time I’m going to acknowledge that Yoon’s writing is so deeply flat and stiff that I was bored shitless most of the time reading this. This man must hate adjectives and sentence structure variation because his prose is downright monotone. For veryyyyy brief moments, that tone amplifies a portion of a story, but then immediately it just becomes dull again.
Every single one of the stories also has the same style ending, almost a trailing-off of the voice that just…ends.
“At the Post Station” is the strongest work in this collection, but even that ultimately felt unfinished.