SLOBS has to be the WORST book ive ever been subjected to
If youve been on this blog, you should know i dislike reading novels: find them extremely boring. So most of the books i have actually read were literature books for english. Each year they give us a set work for us to read and be examined on, and the set works for a specific grade changes ever 2-3 years (pay attention to this)
In grade 8, we had the set work "The Secret Life of Bees" by Su Monk Kid. We thought the book wouldnt be that bad considering we read Holes the year before, and that was objectively a good book (even for me, i actually really liked it). However our minds quickly changed as we began reading, and im here to yap about how shitty the plot and the characters were as i have a deep-seated hatred for this book
The book follows a girl named "Lily Owens" a 14 year old white girl in 1950s (very important) America before the moon-landing. Her dad's pretty abusive and hates her guts because when she was a child, her mother died due to being shot in an arguement and it had something to do with her. Her dad says she's the reason why she died (he's correct btw) and therefore despises her. She also has a black helper named "Rosaline".
One day, after lily realises one of her mothers heirlooms had an address on it, she decided to run away with her help to that address. They arrive at a house that belongs to the Boatwrite (idk and dc about the spelling of their surnames) sisters "August, June and May". The sisters allow the two of them to stay and Lily begins to learn more about beekeeping and her mother as August knew her in the past
Now that ive given a basic synopsis of the book, i can get into why i hate it so much...
Lily is pretentious and "pick-me" like. When we first were introduced to her, she was in her bedroom that had a bee infestation. Her first instinct is to tell us that "she feels connected to the bees" not even bothering about her own safety. Her whole character is basically "Im gonna idealise the fuck out of my dead mom and forget i have other support in my life (ROSALINE)" then later proceeds to get mad after she finds out the truth of her mom temporarily leaving for her own safety, her perfect image of her mother shattering the moment she finds out then proceeds to throw herself a pity party without even bothering to understand why her mother did it
She also srsly glazes the hell out of the black people in the book, but the way she does it is so racist its not even a joke. She first starts out having an unconscious bias against black ppl (cuz again 1950s america) and then proceeds to change her whole tune the moment August shows up, now seeing her and the rest of the black cast as people above her: a unique commodity she wished she had rather than what they are: people. It feels as if shes trying to be black without actually understanding the struggles and depth of racism.
Her relationship with Hector (or at least thats what i think his name was) is shallow and again, puts him on a pedistool for being black and feeding her purple honey (she touched herself to this btw, like WE DONT NEED TO KNOW) and when he was pissed off against the racists acts against him, she tries to stop him. BITCH YOU CANT SAYING JACK SHIT, YOURE WHITE REMEMBER.
She sees August as a motherly god for some reason and pushes aside all her other relationships for her like a dog, forgetting the fact that ROSALINE EVEN EXISTED
Speaking of which: the book forgets about the characters that actually has substance , which is May, Rosaline and Hector. Rosaline spent YEARS acting like a mother to Lily even though she didnt need to, yet "August filled the role of mother in one month". After that we only truely see her with May, acting as May's friend (i loved their relationship tho). SPEAKING OF MAY: she had to be one of the most interesting characters in the whole cast. She's emotional and an extreme empath, feeling the emotions of those who also have suffered and carried their pain with her. She used to have a twin named April that balanced her out, but the moment April died, the balance broke. She had very little scenes but was actually fun to have around
But too bad Su hates my happiness because SHE FUCKING KILLS HER OFF
The only developed character was wiped out of the story, so i had to deal with the rest of the boring cast until the book ended
The book also had some religious aspects to it and when i mean aspects... i mean literal blasphemy. Now im not too strict on how religion is depicted, but if you are gonna use real religious symbols, then do it with the respect it deserves. The Boatwrites have a wooden statue of Mary in the living room and they'd pray to it, but God is completely out of the picture. They also had a lil festival almost immediately after Mays death (which is weird af) where they started... rubbing honey into the statue... If youre gonna use Christianity, especially Catholicism, then dont be weird about it. I go to a Christian school, so this was especially a hard read
Finally: Su uses the n slur like its her birthright. Every second sentence that came out of a white person in the book besides Lily, had the n slur in it. I get it, white americans were (and some still are) racist as fuck but it gets to a point where its less about you using it to be historically accurate, and more about getting to use a slur without seeming racist. Even the white actors in the Harriot Tubman movie didnt use it as much as Su did in the whole entire book. I just feel like Su wanted to use it as much as possible because she'd never be able to type those letters out again without looking racist, and me as well as the other black kids in the grade felt uncomfortable
The reason why im talking about this shitshow of a book is because my friend brought it up yesterday. I get so angry whenever i hear its name and that anger sticks, so im writing it here to let it all out. The plot is a literal nothing burger and the characters solely exist to fuel into Lily's pity parties. And the worst part of this is that my grade was the first AND the last ones to read that book as a setwork, the kids a year younger than me and my brothers grade... GOT HUNGER GAMES, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
Overall: 0/10, wouldnt even recommend it to my worst enemy
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