A review by nclcaitlin
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

1.75

The Bee Sting reminds me of a cross between My Brilliant Friend, Derry Girls the Tv show, and Sally Rooney. 

Unfortunately, this was a waste of 26+ hours audiobook….

It is a story about the dysfunctional, hapless lives of the Barnes family of Ireland, once wealthy, now facing financial difficulties. Each portion of the book is dedicated to the lives of each of the four family members. 

Cassie is the daughter who attends university at Trinity College in Dublin, excited to escape the small town in which she grew up.

12 year old PJ is feeling lonely and worried about his parents relationship. 

Dickie, the father, operates a chain of car dealerships that he inherited from his father, but he is struggling to sell cars and is dealing with a blackmailer. 

Imelda, the mother, is used to money and is reluctantly sells the family's possessions online. 

I was most enamoured by Cassie who seems quite unlikeable and whiney - so like an actuall teenager - and her story revolves around  a toxic friendship and growing up as a girl in Ireland who wants more from her life.

I suppose that’s what everybody wants, isn’t it. To be like everybody else. But nobody is like everybody else. That’s the one thing we have in common.

Everyone acknowledges this book is long, but that the end makes it worth it. To me, that's not how a book should work. Why should I slog through 20 hours to reach the looming satisfaction? 

The first 1/3 I found myself enjoying the relationships between the family members and their unique experiences. However, the next part became tedious and I couldn’t bring myself to care for what happened. There was two minutes just talking about Dicky’s yucky feet. 

To be honest, I just really wasn’t a fan of Dicky and his narrative. The overly description and physicality of the sex scenes. The cold heartedness and callousness of what he calls his ‘fantasy’. 

There were just too many tangents which seemed like the author trying to insert social commentary.

And then the ending….

I had to google what on earth I was missing. Apparently, it is supposed to be ambiguous, but there is so much foreshadowing to read into to allow the reader to decide the truth. Perhaps because I was listening to it and felt like this was a chore, I didn’t pay enough attention.

This was a bit more of a rant compared to a review, but I feel strongly this is why certain people like ‘reading isn’t for them’. This book won a lot of awards, but I feel new readers who pick this up might be put off by continuing to read based on this long, wafting narrative. Even tried-and-tested readers like me.