Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

What readers think of The Secret Life of Bees, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • Readers' Rating (71):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 1, 2002, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2003, 320 pages
  • Genres & Themes
  • Publication Information
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 4 of 9
There are currently 71 reader reviews for The Secret Life of Bees
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

Jenny

She did a wonderful job of keeping the readers' attention. Quality book that I would recommend to anyone
Nicole Eggers

This book jumps straight into the innate need for a moternal figure in every young girls life. KIDD did an excellent job writting this book. The bee metaphores that resemble Lily's life is so real!- I just loved it!!!
Jeremy

I loved the book. She wrote the book where it made you could picture yourself in it. Great Job


I loved the fact that Lily is a teenager, not wallowing in her problems, but solving them head on. Most teenaged characters are never responsible for their problems and themselves. Lily proved me that this sterotype can and will be broken.
Suzanne M.

This is one of those books that I probably would not have discovered and read if it hadn't been assigned by a book club that I belong to, and I've very glad to have come across it. I would heartily recommend it, because the author's writing was fluid and full of gorgeous imagery. I am an AVID reader, and this is the first book in a long time that truly made me feel like I was THERE watching the events of the book take place. There are so many books out there that I rarely read any more than once, but this one is now at the top of my list of "would read again."
John Hensley

The best novel by a Southern author in decades!
Fran

I just had the pleasure of listening to The Secret Life of Bees on audio cassette for hours as I drove from NH to NY and back. It was extraordinary to be surrounded by the sounds of the novel. I'm a fast reader and some times skip "imagery" for the story. By listening, I caught every gorgeous image. The language was truly marvelous. I will buy the audio for myself and listen again.
Charity

This was a wonderful read! I was so enraptured by Lily's character! Sue Monk Kidd has such a superb way of writing that I insisted on reading where I absolutely would not be disturbed- the way Kidd uses words made me stop more than once to ponder them...and be mesmerised by them. Wow- I recommend this book for any lovers of fine literature.

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Model Home
    Model Home
    by Rivers Solomon
    Rivers Solomon's novel Model Home opens with a chilling and mesmerizing line: "Maybe my mother is ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.