Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Bee Sting

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

26 reviews

regina_184's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

This book was very unique both in terms of the plot and the method of switching narrator.

The book follows a family and each member of the family gets their own section of the book, so we hear all their perspectives on the same topics and situations. Although there are some common themes it is difficult to really pin down what the plot is, as every character is experiencing life so differently. That being said, the main topics the characters explore are sexuality, marriage, climate change, financial problems, aduse, alcohol, loneliness, adultery, and friendship.

I truly loved the ending as it shows how 1 side character ends up being the focal point of the book, however the cliffhanger at the end left me wanting more!

Overall really enjoyed the last 200 pages because all the details revealed at the start finally started making sense. However the first 400 pages can be a little slow since the main conflict of the book doesn't get revealed untill the last 200 pages. Additionally the speed of the plot starts of slow and rapidly increases overtime, so the book became more enjoyable when the speed increased.

Overall I would recommend this book, since it was interesting for me to read about marriage and parenthood from the adults perspective. I am in my mid twenties so I found this perspective unique since I have not lived through this and rarely read about it.

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nreyno's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Never read a book more deserving of 5 stars.

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earnest_hemming's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Complex and ambiguous read, covering a wide range of topics, relationships, and povs. I heard many good things about the book but felt as though it was very long for the developments it covers. Interesting description of characters and family tragedies with a very complicated ending.

A little unsure as to why the two non-Irish characters ended up being the main villains in the story.

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emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book felt like a real slog. I started reading this in January for a book club in February. Despite continually trying to chip away at the audiobook, I didn't finish it until August.

There's nothing wrong with it per say. It's long but mostly it was that it's one of those contemporary Irish books that I seem to have read a lot over the last few years, where it's a lot of repressed trauma and angst, then they chuck in some

homophobia

, someone

being raped

and/or

underage sex/drugs/alcohol

and call it a masterpiece. This had all of the above and it didn't add anything. But equally, without it would there even be a book? It's that kind of subgenre I suppose. That about sums up my experience with it I suppose. There were parts where I was curious to find out what happened next but I really, really didn't enjoy and the ending was abrupt but both the lead up and the ending were obvious. I didn't like any of the characters but they did feel well fleshed out.

I don't know. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood to be reading this. Though I'm not sure I'd ever be. You'd think over eight months there'd be a point you'd finally get into it but I didn't find that with this book.

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pearlmijohns's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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violet_viper's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book was super slow in the first half, so much so that I almost DNFed it but in the second half it picks up so much. This book jumped straight to a five star during the final third. I think this definitely would be even better on a reread.

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makayla_radford's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had a lot more expectations for this book going into it based on many of the reviews. The concept of it sounds great, and really the plot itself was captivating and kept me coming back to the book.

That said there were some things I found very distracting while I was reading. The book is centered around the 2008 financial crisis, but there are constantly references to things that did not exist/were not commonly used at the time such as Twitch or Instagram. Additionally there were subplots that never actually received conclusions which continued to distract me from the main story.

I have to disagree with many other reviews though since I actually liked the ending. I felt it was fitting for the book and boosted it up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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sandysmith's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm really torn on this book, a long one at 600 + pages with relatively small text, parts of which had me hooked and parts disappointing. Concentrating on 4 main family members Dickie, stepping his dead brother Frank's shoes, Imelda engaged to Frank marries Dickie, pregnant with Cass, and lastly the little brother PJ. Parts of the book lack punctuation and were difficult to read. But there was plenty to get your teeth into. Concentrating on these 4 characters points of view. Set in Ireland, a small town and Dublin. The ending was rushed and disappointing without any conclusion. The last chapter was written in a play/Greek tragedy format, but I felt it was not concluded. I'm all for allowing a reader to make their own minds up / a mysterious cliff hanger but this went too⁷⁹ far and it was almost like the author ran out if steam and couldn't make his mind up as to the way it would end. So parts I loved and other parts I disliked. Interesting and difficult to review

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andrea_lachance's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A study on the inevitability of a family spiraling out at an increasingly fast pace, as the world falls apart around them.

I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. Murray not only uses the structure of his novel to show to physically quicken the pace and increase the feeling of inevitability and dread, but also uses motifs and shifting pov to unpack one of his central themes; perception vs. reality, and the lies we tell ourselves and others. Embodied by the false title "The Bee Sting" and the false framing of the novel in its summary. The bee sting never even happened, and the real point the question the summary poses "If you wanted to change the story, how far back would you have to go?" is rendered absurd and pointless.

"You look back at the past and you can't tell where exactly you went wrong... is it everything?... your whole innocuous life, has it all been leading up to this moment? ad if it has, what does that make you?" (601)

The book begins by posing a question - what would possess a man to kill his family, and why? "what kind of man would do such a thing". And unfortunately, the last line is the answer.

"It is for love. You are doing this for love."

I think Murray brilliantly ties disparate stories and ties theme elegantly together as the novel reaches a break-neck conclusion. It feels like everything is falling right into place as the characters reach an inflection point of being ripped apart. Everything comes together. The black dogs, the red and grey squirrels, Rose's prophecy, Dickie's shame, Imelda's desire to start again, the flood at the end of the world, the bunker that should be a safe haven. And the first line of the novel returns with chilling foreshadowing.

Murray also focuses on climate change throughout the novel and how it seemed to indicate a coming apocalypse. Cass is concerned with the climate, their town has a catastrophic flood after a dry season,

Dickie's lover Willie is a climate activist,

Dickie is doomsday prepping. And then at the very end of the novel, a deluge of rain that seems apocalyptic and prophetic is the cause of the inevitable tragedy of the Barnes family brought back together.

God, Murray just brings all these wonderful little callbacks at the end, and it's mind-blowing. I will be reading more of Paul Murray's work, because wow. There's so much to unpack in this book.

Yes, I was a little worn out by around page 500, complaining to my friends that this book didn't deserve to be shortlisted for the booker prize. But by page 600 I realized I was dead wrong.

Some people won't be able to get over the lack of punctuation and dialogue tags. Maybe they've never read Sally Rooney or Cormac McCarthy. Maybe they don't understand that there is a reason these stylistic choices have been made (reflecting the character's mental state i.e. Imelda's racing thoughts, Dickie's internalization of the things he should say but doesn't, creating ambiguity between what is said and unsaid). Something about how people can't read a book that intentionally removes punctuation and choose to create strawman, bad faith arguments just reallllly gets to me

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m_a_j's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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