Little Bee - Chris Cleave

Little Bee
By Chris Cleave

This book was difficult for me. I enjoyed the story – well, it’s not that I enjoyed it as much as I appreciated it. I was a powerful story with a huge message behind it and I think the story that unfolded did a great job of portraying that.

That said, I think the writing left something to be desired. I felt all the emotions were put into the wrong moments. I would be reading about a heartbreaking moment in the story and the only reason I had any idea that was going on was because it said “I was crying.” I have a specific example but I’m not going to put a quote because I don’t want to give part of the story away. On the other hand, so much of the minor details became lost in the in-depth descriptions. There would be a page about something so minor (for example the ocean, I understand, symbolism, blah, we’ve gone over this, can we move on already?) I found myself skipping over parts.

I really loved what Little Bee said about scars and that was something that I remembered throughout the book but I also felt disconnected because the story was told as if she were telling it to someone from England and there was a lot I didn’t connect with because of that. I think that part of the story I enjoyed the most was the inside view on journalism and even some politics in London. I was fascinating to me. Although this was not what the story was about, it helped bring it to life.

**Source: I bought this book with my own sweet loot.