Meg Kassel

I've read the books in this series out of order, and it turns out to have been a Very Bad Idea, because where this book should have been tense, I was all 'hah! I know what is going on here!'. It is also the case that this is not as strong a story as Keeper of the Bees - the writing isn't as tight, and the plot not quite as well knitted together - but I probably wouldn't have noticed that as much if I'd read them the other way round. Having said that, I may not have ever picked up Keeper of the Bees if I had read this one first, because it has a couple of plot points that I really wish I hadn't had to encounter (see the content warnings)

Light on the horror, heavy on the teen romance.

content warnings contain spoilers:

So many details, I'm not going to capture all but the ones that bothered me the most. What looks like a school shooting incident, but the shooter is outside the school and is killed by the police with no indication that there was anything concerning about that. The implication that a semi-immortal 'fell in love' with a six year old. The one note teenager who seems very Spoiled Rich Girl, until they get a walk on part in the disaster, with the implication that they have been raped.… (plus d'informations)

If I understand where this book fits in with the other two in the series, it is roughly book 1.5. I've read book 2, but not book 1, and I don't think this one truly works without having read the first one (it might be that it wouldn't have worked anyway, but it felt like reading fanfic of a series that I wasn't yet familiar with the characters for). It reads almost as an out-take, although it might be that it is an alternate viewpoint on a set of the events -- I'll leave that judgement for later.

I don't really have much to say. There is a little bit of background for the viewpoint character, some obsession about how falling in love is out of character for them, and some actual communication after failure to communicate causes issues.… (plus d'informations)

I loved this book. It does something really clever with reality, with curses, and with immortals in the modern world. I was not expecting something with so dark a premise to be so explicitly a romance, and a well written one at that. I've read too many dark fantasy/horror stories where the disabled woman dies at the end, rather than getting the happily ever after.

And that disabled young woman? Fabulous character. They are frank and fearless in talking about their condition. They have family around them who accept and understand that things are difficult. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, there are also family who don't handle it well, and there are scenes relating to that that are quite confronting. More on that in the content warnings

I would term this body horror. But it is not the disabled characters that I'm referring to -- at no point does the story frame them as people for the reader to be afraid of (afraid for, yes, because there is a storyline that highlights a common attitude to disability - eugenics - although I read it at the author criticising rather than supporting the idea). It is our other viewpoint character, the one cursed to be the Beekeeper -- who has a hive of bees in their chest -- that is the body horrific.

This is Kassel's second book about a Beekeeper who escapes their curse. Parts of the previous story are important in this one; reading this without having read the first ratchets up the suspense somewhat, because the solution to the problem isn't known. This really worked for me. However, it also means that I know what is going to happen in the first book (which I have ordered, and am looking forward to reading). People who have read the first book will get a different level of suspense, which I have to assume will be equally distressing.

And lastly -- there is a serial killer in this story. See the content warnings for more details.

content warnings: Murder, Ableism, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault. Murder of disabled characters because they are disabled, forced institutionalism, predatory medical system and practitioners, eugenicist thinking/behaviour including specific reference to making sure that all the women who might have children with the condition don't have children. There is an attempted rape. There is also a severe weather event (tornado?) which is pretty distressing for several characters.… (plus d'informations)