Reviews

The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton

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katrinarose's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

3.0

Interesting premise, fine execution. Nothing really pulled me in or really wowed me, but it wasn’t bad. It had a nice little found family plotline but I still never felt very connected to anyone in the book.

Content Warnings

cassidypamela's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

fafpaf0405's review against another edition

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4.0

A nice little story with a hint of dystopian perils. Found myself thinking how easily this could be actual current events instead of a fiction book, scary!

bookhoarder76's review against another edition

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4.0

"You have the whole world to love, Little Bee. Promise you won't spend your life grieving over the things you already lost."

This isn't something I would typically read but that amazing cover grabbed my attention right away.
I got a little bored in the middle but it didn't last long. I was also left wanting a little more closure in the end, at least an Epilogue. I guess that's what my imagination is for though. Overall I'm glad I picked this one up the story will stick with me.

kelly_inthe419's review against another edition

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4.0

This is just one of several books I've read over the past couple of years that reflect tales of environmental and climate disaster. And I seem to be gobbling them up.

The Last Beekeeper is set 10 years after bees have become extinct causing worldwide devastation of the food chain worldwide. Amidst the chaos, Sasha Butler (fka Sasha Severn) returns to her childhood home with one goal in mind—find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated for keeping bees illegally. But when Sasha sees a bee in the woods near her childhood home, her world becomes that much more complicated.

This story seemed quite believable given the current impacts of climate change and chemical disasters. I was sucked in from the very beginning as the story follows dual timelines of Sasha's childhood memories and her present day life. I loved Sasha's character and her growing friendships with her fellow squatters, Gino, Ian and Halle as well as her budding romance with Bassel.

The story offers a bit of speculative fiction, a bit of science fiction and a dystopian narrative along with a little mystery as we learn more about Sasha, her father's determination to protect her, and her found family as the work to save and nurture the bees. I did feel the ending left me a little conflicted. I don't normally mind ambiguous endings, but I wanted a bit more - maybe an epilogue. And I wasn't convinced by Chuck's (Sasha's uncle) story arc. No spoilers, though!

This was more like 4.5⭐️ for me as I really loved everything else about the story. Thank you NetGalley and Forge Books for my digital ARC!

thunderingnight_reads's review against another edition

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3.0

With the decrease in population of bees every year, this dystopian novel doesn’t seem too far off into the future. As someone who is passionate about bees and spreading information to help their conservation…. I really enjoyed reading this. Especially because with where we are right now in the world. This could be a reasonable future if we don’t do something to change it. Following the Last Beekeepers Daughter shows us someone trying to fix what has been destroyed, come to terms with a role she played in it all, finding a family in the aftermath of her father being imprisoned. I think this was overall a solid story, it could have used a bit more development with characters, but it really was an enjoyable read about a topic that really isn’t so hard to believe.

graywild's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The concept is interesting. The bee population around the world is dying due to overuse of pesticides. Sasha's father is trying to save the bees through his research. The book takes place in 2 timelines, Sasha at age 11 when the bees are dying and Sasha at age 23 when the world has no bees. The story just stalls out for me. Takes too long to get into the overall story and toward the end I find the general story moving into a space of unbelievability. Not recommended from me.